former hotel employee pleads guilty to $170,000 fraud scheme
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former employee of Springfield University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center pleaded guilty in federal court today to stealing nearly $170,000 from the hotel.
Janet R. Mosier, 47, of Springfield, waived her right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate James C. England to a federal information that charges her with wire fraud.
Mosier, director of accounting services at University Plaza, admitted that she engaged in a scheme to defraud her employer from January 2003 to October 2010. Mosier stole funds from the University Plaza petty cash account by falsely reporting inflated amounts of petty cash spent, and diverting the excess to her own bank account. In this manner, Mosier admitted that she stole $169,864 from her employer.
Over the years, Mosier submitted receipts from her personal expenses, and receipts obtained from family members, to support the fraudulently inflated reports of petty cash outlays. Many receipts, which Mosier altered by removing transaction dates, were used multiple times. Mosier submitted one such receipt, actually for her sister’s dental expenses, 30 times over the course of three and a half years.
Under federal statutes, Mosier is subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000 and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich. It was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.
