The ex-payroll manager at a Wethersfield software company has admitted embezzling $1.7 million from her employer, errant income she also failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service, federal prosecutors say.
Penny Roy, 44, of Wethersfield, pleaded guilty Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis in New Haven, to stealing from the unidentified firm, the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
According to court testimony and documents, Roy used her payroll knowledge to insert her own bank account information into the profiles of other employees. She then processed fraudulent expense reimbursements and payroll payments in the other employees’ names, with the payments flowing into her own bank account.
Roy was fired after the company discovered fake expense reimbursements she had processed in her own name, investigators said.
To hide her theft, Roy failed to declare the stolen money on her income-tax returns, depriving the IRS of just under $500,000 in tax revenues, authorities said.
Roy faces up to 23 years in prison when she is sentenced on Nov. 17.
Neither Roy nor her attorney could be immediately reached Monday for comment.
