EVERETT — A former payroll employee for a popular Lynnwood-based specialty clothing retailer is accused of stealing more than $140,000 from the company.
Danielle Koehn, 37, was arrested for investigation of 28 counts of identity theft and booked into the Snohomish County Jail on Tuesday.
The Marysville woman is accused of using personal information from other employees and former employees to create computer files used to activate pay-card accounts she then pilfered. The information she used included dates of birth and Social Security card numbers, according to allegations spelled out in a probable cause statement.
A payroll manager with Zumiez Inc. took the company’s concerns to the Lynnwood Police Department in March after discovering suspicious activity in its pay-card payroll system. Zumiez has hundreds of stores across the United States and Canada. It sells clothing, footwear and accessories, catering to snow and skateboarders.
The company discovered 28 accounts that had been fraudulently created and funded.
An internal investigation showed that the fraud went back to 2012 and that the suspect allegedly had initiated many of the pay cards and paired them with pay-card account numbers.
When current and former employees were interviewed, there was no evidence any of them knew or gave permission for the pay-card accounts to be created using their personal information, according to court papers.
Some of the accounts might have been started using a stolen password and log-in information belonging to the payroll manager, police wrote.
After obtaining a search warrant, police tracked withdrawals using the cards. The vast majority of transactions occurred at ATMs in Marysville. In a few cases, the cards were used to buy merchandise under Koehn’s name.
Records also allegedly showed a phone number matching the suspect’s phone was used to tap into the fraudulent accounts.
The investigation is continuing and could lead to more theft allegations, Lynnwood police Sgt. Sean Doty said.
Koehn was arrested and taken into custody after a traffic stop in Marysville on Tuesday morning. She said little and requested a lawyer, court papers said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
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