Wendy Harper, Embezzlement, Ohio 2023

Columbus woman, 44, Wendy Harper, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to embezzling HUD program funds from her employer, Harvest Management Group, Inc.

Harper, a resident of Columbus, Ohio, was responsible for managing payroll and payment functions for the agency. She manipulated the system to give herself unauthorized salary increases and unauthorized mileage reimbursements between 2009 and 2012.

According to court documents, Harper would have had to have driven more than 1,200,000 miles in order for the mileage reimbursements to have been legitimate.

Harper acknowledged that the U.S. showed the amount of money she embezzled was $588,121.46 and that she concealed her crime by filing false income tax returns for 2009, 2010, and 2011 on which she failed to report the embezzled funds.

The tax loss to the government was $126,019.36. Harper's theft of these HUD program funds contributed to Harvest Management Group having difficulties maintaining the properties to minimum HUD standards and paying its property taxes.

Theft of federal program funds is punishable by up to ten years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release. Filing false income tax returns is punishable by up to three years in prison, a $250,000 fine, the costs of prosecution, and one year of supervised release.

Defendant Name: Wendy Harper

Exact Criminal Charges: Embezzlement and filing false income tax returns

City and State: Columbus, Ohio

Exact Date: Not specified

Sentence or Outcome: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing

Dollar Amounts: $588,121.46 (embezzled funds), $126,019.36 (tax loss)

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/columbus-woman-pleads-guilty-embezzling-hud-program-funds-filing-false-income-tax