United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS, BOOKKEEPER ADMITS
DEFRAUDING EMPLOYER OF $200,000

LUBBOCK, Tx. — Tonya McGuire Stalcup, who worked as a bookkeeper at Wool Growers Central Storage Co., Inc., (Wool Growers) in Ozona, Texas, pled guilty to a one-count information charging she defrauded and swindled her employer of approximately $200,000, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Stalcup entered her plea before U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings who ordered a pre-sentence investigation with sentencing to be scheduled after that investigation is completed. She faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution.

Stalcup, 39, of San Angelo, Texas, began working as a bookkeeper at Wool Growers in 1998. Wool Growers operated warehouses that stored mohair and wool until it could be sold. It also acted as an agent and fiduciary for mohair and wool producers. If a producer agreed to sell at an offered price, then Wool Growers collected the sales price, deducted storage and commission costs, and then paid the balance to the producer whose mohair or wool had been sold. Wool Growers, which had mohair and wool storage warehouses in Ozona and Sanderson, Texas, also sold farm and ranch supplies. In documents filed in court, Stalcup admitted that from approximately August 2001 through May 2006, she used several schemes to defraud Wool Growers of approximately $200,000.

From approximately August 2001 until May 2006, Stalcup defrauded Wool Growers of $126,658.43 by using her position as a bookkeeper to write approximately 218 unauthorized checks made payable to herself on the Wool Growers’ and its subsidiary, Sanderson’s, bank accounts. During this same time period, Stalcup also stole cash from Wool Growers.

In addition, she ran another scheme from approximately July 2004 until April 2006, in which she took approximately $7,977.85 from Wool Growers by placing unauthorized orders for goods she represented were placed in inventory, when, in fact, she took the goods for her own personal use. Two of the fraudulent transactions were for saddles.

U.S. Attorney Roper commended the investigative efforts of Texas Ranger Brooks Long and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger McRoberts of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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