Slidell woman pleads guilty to embezzling $285,000

Jessie Munch, 60, of Slidell pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud Wednesday in U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance’s court for an embezzlement scheme in which Munch stole more than $285,000 from a local air conditioning and heating company.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten charged Munch last September with wire fraud after investigators discovered that Munch was stealing checks made out to the company in an elaborate scheme that lasted from June 2001 to March 2005.

According to the bill of information, Munch was handling payroll, billing, collecting and bookkeeping for a New Orleans air conditioning and heating company.

As the bookkeeper, Munch was given signed blank checks to pay bills, and payroll taxes. The bill of information said Munch devised a way to siphon off the money, by stealing the checks and making them payable to her. Over a four-year period she stole more than $285,000.

When she made the checks out to herself, federal authorities said Munch concealed this in the company books by placing blank paper over carbon paper and writing the vendor’s name, and then would transfer the name into the company books, making it look like the payment had been made to the vendor. Then she would enter the amount of the check into the books and the computer to make it look like she had paid a vendor or federal payroll taxes.

The company also contracted with a certified public accountant in South Carolina.

To make it look like the books and accounts were reconciled, Munch allegedly sent false financial information to the accountant in order to cover up her thefts. This transmission of false information, especially of supposedly paid federal payroll taxes led to the charge of wire fraud against Munch.

Munch will be sentenced Feb. 10 and she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.