A former office manager has been sent to federal prison for her role in embezzling over $8.5 million from a company in Alpharetta, Georgia. According to the court, Sonya Hesenius, 60, of St. Petersburg, Florida, made fraudulent charges on corporate credit cards and caused the company to reimburse her personal credit card for personal expenses.
Hesenius was employed as an office manager and executive assistant at a company in Alpharetta, Georgia, that provides third-party yard management services. During her employment, she made fraudulent charges, concealed her scheme by coding and approving all the charges herself, withheld supporting documentation from the company, and disguised the unauthorized expenditures in the company’s accounting system as legitimate expenses.
The embezzlement scheme spanned from 2015 to 2020, with Hesenius using the fraudulently obtained funds to live a lavish lifestyle. This included company expenditures for her daughter’s wedding, designer handbags from Saks Fifth Avenue, private jet vacations, and tickets to various sporting events.
Hesenius was convicted on November 29, 2023, after she pleaded guilty. U.S. District Judge Victoria M. Calvert sentenced Hesenius to six years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Hesenius was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $8,614,729.37.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. O’Neal prosecuted the case.
Hesenius’s sentence should serve as a warning to those who abuse their positions of trust for personal gain. The FBI takes wire fraud extremely seriously and will work to hold offenders accountable.
The case highlights the importance of vigilance in corporate financial management. Companies must ensure that their employees are not using their positions to embezzle funds and must have robust systems in place to detect and prevent such schemes.
For further information, please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.
Key Facts
- State: Georgia
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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