U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton has sentenced Justina Maria Holland – now known as Justina Maria Rummel, 36, Winter Springs, to eight years in federal prison and ordered her to pay $1,161,185.64 in restitution.
Holland had previously pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, false use of a Social Security number, and theft of government property.
According to court documents, Holland was employed at a local business where she had access to the bank and credit accounts of the business and its owner. From March 2015 through June 2018, Holland used her position to embezzle more than $1 million from her employer and the employer’s owner. Holland’s scheme consisted of three parts:
First, Holland embezzled more than $300,000 by taking funds from various company checking and IRA accounts and by manipulating the company payroll system to receive additional salary payments.
Second, Holland engaged in more than $700,000 of credit card fraud by making unauthorized purchases using the victim’s credit cards, which she paid by making unauthorized transfers from her employer’s various bank accounts.
Holland also opened a credit card account in the victim’s name by using his Social Security number and then used that card to make more than $196,000 in purchases for herself, including visits to a local theme park. Holland used her employer’s bank accounts to pay the bills for that credit card.
Lastly, Holland used her minor son’s Social Security number to obtain financing to purchase a BMW and a Porsche. Holland used funds from her employer to make some of the car payments for her vehicles.
Holland covered up her embezzlements by providing her employer with false spreadsheets that concealed her spending, among other things.
During the time that Holland was working at the employer and embezzling funds, she received benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a program that supplements the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency. (Until 2008, SNAP was known as the Food Stamp Program.).
SNAP is a federally funded, national program established by United States Department of Agriculture and administered in Florida by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF). In her applications for public SNAP assistance, Holland falsely represented that she and her husband did not earn any income. From May 2012 to August 2016, Holland received over $23,000 in SNAP benefits.
She would not have received any of those benefits had she not made those misrepresentations about her financial situation.
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