A St. Johnsbury woman has pleaded guilty to a federal charge involving the embezzlement of about $2.2 million over a decade from her employer.
Prosecutors say she then used the stolen loot to pay for online gambling and personal debts and expenses.
Jennifer Dwyer, 49, entered her plea Friday in federal court in Burlington to one count of wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors said in a release issued late Friday afternoon that Dwyer stole the money between 2007 to 2017 from Northeast Agricultural Sales Inc., of Lyndonville where she worked as a bookkeeper.
Asked if the $2.2 million embezzled is the largest amount in a federal case in Vermont, U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan, who has been the state’s top federal prosecutor since 2017, replied Monday, “If it’s not the biggest, it has to be up there with the highest.”
Dwyer had been arraigned on the charge in January. Judge Christina Reiss accepted the guilty plea Friday and scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dwyer for Feb. 11.
Dwyer, under the plea agreement, faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, the release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated.
However, the actual sentence will be determined by the judge with the federal sentencing guidelines serving in an advisory role.
Dwyer, as a bookkeeper for Northeast Agricultural Sales, which has locations in Lyndonville and Maine, had job duties that included billing customers, handling accounts and managing payroll.
Prosecutors said in the release that by pleading guilty Dwyer admitted that she embezzled $2,221,079 from the company through unauthorized electronic transfers of funds from the payroll account to her personal checking account.
Dwyer used the money on online gambling and to pay for personal debts and expenses, the release added.
As part of the plea deal, according to prosecutors, Dwyer agreed to pay restitution of $2.2 million to the company, and has already agreed to the repossession and sale of a camper that she partially paid for with the embezzled funds.
Prosecutors, according to the release, previously forfeited Dwyer’s 2015 GMC Sierra 2500 truck, and she also sold a 2016 Sea-Doo watercraft.
Nolan, the U.S. attorney for Vermont, said Monday the case highlights that while financial crimes are complicated, her office is committed to pursuing such cases.
“It was really important as part of the plea agreement to clawback as much of that stolen money as we possibly could on behalf of the victims,” Nolan added of Dwyer case.
There are “vans, campers, tractors, anything that we could find to get them some compensation for what they lost,” Nolan said. “Sadly, they’re not going to be made whole in any way shape or form.”
Officials at Northeast Agricultural Sales declined Monday to comment on the case. Natasha Sen, Dwyer’s attorney, could not immediately be reached Monday for comment.
Dwyer remains released on conditions pending the sentencing hearing.
Read the story on VTDigger here: St. Johnsbury woman admits to embezzling $2.2M from Lyndonville employer.
