EVERETT — An accounting manager for an Everett manufacturer pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $2.5 million in an embezzlement scheme that lasted 10 years, with at least 867 “secretly executed” wire transfers, according to federal prosecutors.
In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the victim is identified only as “Victim Company.” A LinkedIn profile for Christin Guillory suggests she 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, 39, of Kent, 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.
“The scheme was detected when a financial institution reported irregularities,” according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release Thursday.
Adding it all up, investigators documented Guillory had stolen $2,536,086.17 from her employer.
Prosecutors also noted the ill-gotten money should have been considered taxable income. In the tax year 2019, for example, she reported $38,022 in income, under penalty of perjury. In reality, she had brought in another $615,000 through embezzlement.
“Ms. Guillory received millions of dollars of ‘involuntary contributions’ from her employer, stolen amounts which she gave herself by abusing her position of trust within the company,” said Special Agent in Charge Bret Kressin of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Seattle Field Office, in a written statement.
A Herald reporter’s phone and email messages to Majestic Glove weren’t immediately returned.
Guillory admitted guilt in federal court Thursday to wire fraud, as well as making and subscribing a false tax return. Prosecutors plan to recommend a sentence of three years and five months in prison. She’s set to be sentence by U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez on Aug. 11.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @snocaleb.
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