Bothell woman used employers as ‘piggy bank,’ stole $400K
Published 1:30 am Saturday, June 29, 2019
BOTHELL — Over five years, the woman wrote 306 fraudulent checks and took more than $400,000 from her employers.
As a part-time bookkeeper for a Lynnwood property management firm, she forged the owners’ signatures to write company checks to herself, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Erin McCauley, 52, from Bothell, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to three years in prison for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
“She stole a significant amount of money from a small company and it greatly impacted that business,” Judge Ricardo Martinez said at the hearing, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The owners had hired McCauley to work at the firm in 2004, and came to trust her as they entered their 60s and 70s. Through the years, they gave her gifts, helped with car and house payments and gave her an annual bonus. In 2017, they loaned her $8,000 for home repairs. Now they believe she used the stolen money to repay them.
When confronted, McCauley reportedly underestimated the amount of money she took, and said she had a gambling addiction, according to the statement.
In divorce papers filed in 2013, McCauley explained she had experienced financial troubles after her ex-husband left their home. The house needed maintenance, and they owed more money on it than it was worth. She overdrew her account and bills became overdue, she wrote. In addition to receiving income from her part-time job, she’s an author of romance novels, divorce papers indicated.
In a response, her ex-husband wrote that McCauley was living an “excessive lifestyle” after their separation and that she was maxing out credit cards.
Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that McCauley “wanted money that she did not have in order to live a lifestyle she could not afford.” To get that money, she took advantage of the owners’ trust and used them as a “piggy bank,” they wrote.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
