Rebecca Willis, a 67-year-old bookkeeper from Evansville, Indiana, seems to have missed the memo that “cooking the books” is frowned upon. After a solid 20-year run with an architecture firm, where she handled all things financial, Willis decided to spice things up a bit.
Between 2006 and 2021, she embarked on a side hustle as a “payroll artist,” generously adding a few (or many) extra hours, bonuses, and mileage reimbursements to her paycheck. Think of it as a 40% “creativity bonus” every payday!
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But Willis wasn’t just about boosting her salary. She also treated herself to a shopping spree using the company’s credit cards and accounts, stocking up on essentials like gift cards and gasoline. Who needs a salary when you have a company card, right?
Unfortunately for Willis, her artistic flair for finances didn’t go unnoticed. After a thorough investigation by the FBI and Evansville Police Department, it was revealed that her “masterpieces” amounted to a whopping $570,209.47 in losses for her employer.
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U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers, clearly not amused by Willis’s creative accounting, stated, “This defendant lied, stole, and cooked the books to line her pocket with no remorse…repaying their trust by fraudulently increasing her income by nearly forty percent over fifteen years.”
Willis’s artistic license has been revoked, and she’s been sentenced to two years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. She’s also been ordered to repay the full amount she “borrowed” from her employer. It seems that in the world of finance, creativity doesn’t always pay.
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