Bookkeeper embezzles $849,000 from client, then blames one of her employees, feds say

A Missouri bookkeeper embezzled $849,000 from her client as part of a yearslong scheme, according to federal authorities.

But when the client “discovered that he was missing large amounts of money” in June 2022, the bookkeeper blamed one of her employees, prosecutors said.

Now, Cora G. Willard, 47, has been sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison, according to an Oct. 18 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Her defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 19.

Willard, of Shrewsbury, ran a bookkeeping and money-management assistance company named Red Hen Business Services, according to the release.

Through her business, a man who ran a wealth management business hired Willard in May 2019 to do his bookkeeping and bill paying, according to the woman’s guilty plea agreement. Prosecutors said she had access to the man’s bank accounts and financial records.

Willard began stealing from the client later that year, authorities said. From about Nov. 29, 2019, through June 10, 2022, she “made nearly 100 unauthorized wire transfers to herself from the victim’s bank account, even after he’d asked her to close the account,” according to the release.

Many of the tax and bill payments Willard was hired to make were actually wired to her own accounts, authorities said.

To cover up her scheme, authorities said the bookkeeper sent her client fake balance sheets.

Willard pleaded guilty in April to a felony count of wire fraud, records show.

In addition to time in prison, she was ordered to pay $849,000 in restitution. She repaid $100,000 on Oct. 18, according to the release.

Red Hen Business Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 19.

Shrewsbury is part of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

This story was originally published October 19, 2023 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Bookkeeper embezzles $849,000 from client, then blames one of her employees, feds say."