Former Connecticut Resident Admits Structuring Money She Embezzled From Employer

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that LYNN A. SCHEUFLER, 35, formerly of Woodstock, Conn. and currently residing in Vermont, pleaded guilty on Friday, March 7, before U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to structuring hundreds of thousands of dollars, including funds that she embezzled from her employer.

According to court documents and statements made in court, SCHEUFLER was the Controller and Chief Financial Officer of a company that owns and operates dining and nightlife venues in the northeastern United States.  In that role, she was responsible for filling ATM machines located in the company’s venues out of the cash that managers collected from daily business operations and deposited into nightly deposit bags.  Over the course of approximately two years, SCHEUFLER embezzled funds by taking cash out of the company’s nightly deposit bags and by making unauthorized withdrawals from the company’s cash accounts using the company’s ATM cards.

SCHEUFLER, with the assistance of then boyfriend and now husband, Craig L. Galligan, deposited at least $400,000 in stolen cash into their personal bank accounts.  Most of these deposits were illegally structured so that no individual deposit exceeded the $10,000 threshold that would have triggered bank reporting requirements.

Federal law requires all financial institutions to file a Currency Transaction Report (CTR) for currency transactions that exceed $10,000.  To evade the filing of a CTR, individuals will often structure their currency transactions so that no single transaction exceeds $10,000.  Structuring involves the repeated depositing or withdrawal of amounts of cash less than the $10,000 limit, or the splitting of a cash transaction that exceeds $10,000 into smaller cash transactions in an effort to avoid the reporting requirements.  Even if the deposited funds are derived from a legitimate means, financial transactions conducted in this manner are still in violation of federal criminal law.

SCHEUFLER pleaded guilty to one count of illegally structuring financial transactions as part of a pattern of illegal activity, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.  Judge Thompson scheduled sentencing for May 30, 2014.

On August 1, 2013, Galligan, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to structure financial transactions.  He awaits sentencing.

SCHEUFLER and Galligan were arrested on October 10, 2012, and are currently released on bond.

This matter is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. McGarry.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov