This case should be simple, but the info is very thin. The Justice Department press release is shortest I’ve seen yet. Thanks to Andrew Jewett who dug up more.
Judy M. Green of Baytown, TX was hired in 1994 by Liqua Tech where she served as the primary and often only Accounts Payable manager. Liqua Tech services commercial properties and focuses on roofing, siding, and building maintenance.
In 2011 Judy started to steal. She created fake invoices in the name of real vendors. Once the invoice was approved, she would change the vendor check name in the accounting system to the name of a credit card company for one of her credit cards or one of her children’s credit cards. Green would then cut a check and forge the owner’s signature since she didn’t have rights to sign checks. Green would then change the payee in the system back to the real vendor and mail the check to the appropriate credit card company.
There was a hint of segregation of duties here in that Green couldn’t sign checks. A cursory bank reconciliation with just check numbers and amounts wouldn’t have found this, but any kind of a review of check copies would have. Stricter controls around payments like validating payments to be made, comparing to payments planned, etc. could have helped, but it’s also not something an average business owner does.
Ultimately, in 2022 the owner noticed a large payment to an unknown credit card company and the scheme unravelled after, and I emphasize this, 10 years and $3 million. Green confessed and took a plea deal. As I write this, she has not yet been sentenced.
Wow, Mark. A movie company could make a whole series of movies based on the episodes of fraud you’ve highlighted here. Just jazz ’em up with a little illicit romance and hubris and fast cars and you’ve got yourself a hit!
Steve Erbach