Debra Wong Yang
United States Attorney
Central District of California
United States Courthouse
312 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
August 1, 2005
Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947
Los Angeles, CA - The former office operations manager for the Santa Ana office of Deloitte Consulting L.L.P., a subsidiary of Deloitte and Touche USA L.L.P., was arrested this morning on federal fraud charges that accuse her of bilking her employer out of more than a half-million dollars.
Jamie Watkins, 48, of Santa Ana, was arrested without incident this morning by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Watkins was arrested pursuant to an indictment, returned last Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, that accuses her of five counts of wire fraud and five counts of mail fraud.
Watkins allegedly exploited Deloitte expense reimbursement programs to defraud the firm out of approximately $550,000 from June 2000 until October 2003. The Indictment alleges that Watkins used several schemes to perpetrate the fraud on Deloitte.
In one scheme, Watkins used her company credit card to pay for personal items knowing Deloitte would pay the account balance. Using her company credit card, Watkins allegedly paid her property taxes and made numerous purchases, including jewelry, clothing and a wine cellar.
Second, Watkins sought and received reimbursement payments for purported business-related purchases that Watkins paid for with a company credit card. Watkins allegedly had no out-of-pocket expenses, but she submitted documentation claiming business-related expenses.
Finally, Watkins allegedly created false invoices for non-existent purchases and submitted reimbursement forms and phony receipts to receive reimbursements.
Based on Watkins' allegedly fraudulent acts and false representations, Deloitte made reimbursements and paid off the account balance on Watkins's company credit card.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Watkins is scheduled to make her initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Santa Ana.
If convicted of all 10 counts in the indictment, Watkins faces a statutory maximum penalty of 80 years in federal prison.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Release No. 05-112
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