Attorney General Moody Announces Arrest of an Office Manager for Stealing Nearly $150,000 From Employer

Attorney General Moody Announces Arrest of an Office Manager for Stealing Nearly $150,000 From Employer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Attorney General Ashley Moody's Office of Statewide Prosecution and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office today announced the arrest of an office manager and payroll director of a periodontal clinic on fraud charges. According to a multiagency investigation, Cathy Green defrauded Periodontal Health Center out of nearly $150,000.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, "Employers entrust office managers with extremely sensitive personal and financial information, and for a manager to use this authority to defraud the company they work for is not just an act of betrayal, it's criminal. Working with Sheriff Chronister and his deputies, we stopped this fraud before more money could be stolen and now my Statewide Prosecutors will ensure justice is served."

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said, "The audacity this arrestee had to steal from her employer, from right under their nose, is disrespectful and despicable. For years, she took advantage of her employer and stole more than $100,000 in unapproved overtime. On top of that, she used company credit cards to purchase items for her own personal use. To think she would never get caught is simply foolish, and I commend our detectives in the Economic Crimes Section for their hard work and putting an end to her exploitation efforts."

The multicircuit investigation began after Attorney General Moody's Statewide Prosecutors received a complaint from a business owner with offices in various counties of Tampa Bay who claimed to have been defrauded. The investigation found that Green used privileged access to the company's computer systems to adjust personal pay to include fraudulent, bogus overtime payouts of more than $107,000. Green used sophisticated recoding schemes that allowed the fraud to continue undetected from 2019 to present day.

According to the investigation, Green also used the company's Amazon account to purchase personal items-sending the items directly to her home in an effort to conceal the crimes. The products ordered for personal use are valued at more than $41,000.

Green is charged with one count of organized scheme to defraud, a first-degree felony. Senior Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Whitney Mackay will prosecute this case.