SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – In San Antonio, a federal judge sentenced 46-year-old Rosalinda Fuentes to 45 months in federal prison for stealing more than $973,000 from her former employer.
In addition to the prison term, Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra ordered that Fuentes pay $973,760.98 in restitution to her former employer and be placed on supervised release for a period of one year after completing her prison term. Following today’s hearing, Judge Ezra remanded Fuentes into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service to begin serving her prison term.
“This case involved a blatant fraud — so blatant that it’s hard to believe the defendant thought she would get away with it. I’m pleased that today justice prevailed,” stated U.S. Attorney Bash.
On December 30, 2019, Fuentes pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. By pleading guilty, Fuentes admitted that while processing employee payroll for MUY! Companies, LLC from 2014 to 2019, she implemented a scheme to steal money from the company. Fuentes used names of current and former employees to generate fraudulent pay checks and direct those unauthorized funds to bank accounts which she controlled. Furthermore, once the money had been deposited, Fuentes voided the fraudulent transactions from company records in an effort to conceal her scheme.
The FBI investigated this case with valuable assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Lewis, Jr., prosecuted the case on behalf of the government.
“The San Antonio FBI shares a close working relationship with the Texas Department of Public Safety, which provides a full-time, seasoned investigator to partner with us on significant financial fraud investigations. This case is yet another example of how this relationship benefits both of our agencies as well as the citizens of San Antonio,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Combs.