Everett accountant sentenced to 3 years for $2.5M embezzlement

Published 3:30 pm Tuesday, August 29, 2023

EVERETT – A U.S. District Court judge sentenced a former accountant of an Everett manufacturer to three years in prison for stealing $2.5 million from her employer in an embezzlement scheme that lasted 10 years.

Christin Guillory, 40, of Kent, received the sentence Tuesday from U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez for wire fraud and tax fraud.

Guillory admitted guilt in May to wire fraud that included 867 “secretly executed” wire transfers, as well as making and filing a false tax return.

“Ms. Guillory betrayed colleagues who were also her friends,” Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a press release. “For nine years she engaged in a meticulous scheme to hide her theft. Over those nine years, she deliberately chose to steal from the company 867 times. And she did it while working side-by-side with colleagues who trusted her.”

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the victim is identified only as “Victim Company.” A LinkedIn profile for Christin suggests Guillory worked as an accounting manager for Majestic Glove — a workwear and safety gear maker on West Casino Road — for the duration of the scheme.

Guillory opened an account with payment processor Square in 2013, choosing a display name that made it look like it belonged to a commercial shipping company, according to the charges filed in federal court.

From 2014 to 2019, she moved $1,695,591.97 in company funds to her Square account, then transferred the money to a personal account to use “for her own purposes,” according to the court papers. Throughout the scheme, she made false entries in the accounting system to make it look like the payments were legitimate.

Square’s compliance watchdog noticed odd transfers in 2015. Guillory claimed the account was “being used to collect payments to a consulting and cleaning business owned by Guillory,” according to the charges. She “prepared and provided Square with a fraudulent invoice to support her false statements.”

When her Square account shut down in late 2019, she opened two new PayPal accounts: one under a similar name to the “Victim Company,” another under the name of a shipping company with no apparent ties to Guillory.

She funneled over $604,000 through those accounts, with almost all of that landing in her own bank accounts. Then in late 2021, she moved another $247,000, in a series of transactions, direct to her own bank account, again writing false entries into the accounting books to cover her tracks.

Guillory also filed false tax returns, prosecutors said, failing to report the more than $2.5 million in income she embezzled. For example, for the tax year 2019, Guillory represented that her income was $38,022, but failed to report the $615,392 in income she received that year from her embezzlement. In all, Guillory failed to pay $590,850 that she owed in taxes, the press release said.

Guillory used the stolen money to support a prescription drug addiction.

“Her substance abuse developed to the point where, according to Guillory, she was spending nearly $2,000 per day on prescription drugs during the offense period,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “While Guillory has six prior convictions, including two for theft and two for drug possession, all appear to be connected to Guillory’s drug addiction.”

The judge said: “You’ve known your entire life that you had an addiction issue, but you never took any steps on your own to deal with it.”

Friends, family and supporters submitted over 20 pages of letters to the judge, explaining Guillory is “an extraordinary woman” who has struggled with addiction stemming from past trauma.

Guillory was ordered to pay $2,536,086 restitution to the company and $590,850 to the U.S. Treasury. Martinez ordered that Guillory be placed on three years of supervised release after prison.

Michael Henneke: 425-339-3431; michael.henneke@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @ihenpecked.