Yuba City Woman Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Staffing Agency of More than $500,000

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Denise Wasicki, 40, of Yuba City, pleaded guilty today to two counts of mail fraud in a scheme to defraud a staffing agency out of more than $500,000 in an employee recruitment scheme for a fake business, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, Wasicki operated a scheme to defraud a staffing agency. In June 2009, Wasicki was employed by a staffing and payroll services agency based in Hanover, Maryland to fill a temporary position at a hospital in Yuba City. When she was terminated by the hospital, Wasicki created a fictional company called Healthcare Quality Management Group (HQMG) that had a fictional client that was purportedly a medical office in Yuba City. Posing as “Jackie Stemmons,” Wasicki engaged the staffing agency to provide staff for the medical office and gave them her own name as the person who should be hired. Because Wasicki had been employed by the agency previously, they were able to expedite her hiring and ultimately placed her in an office manager position.

Between July 28, 2009, and May 12, 2010, Wasicki sent time cards and requests for expense reimbursements to the agency for herself and for an assistant office manager at the fictional medical office. As part of the scheme, Wasicki sent the agency fraudulent checks to reimburse it for payroll services it provided, all of which were drawn on fictitious accounts and all of which bounced. As a result of her actions, the agency sustained a loss of more than $500,000.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney André M. Espinosa is prosecuting the case.

Wasicki is scheduled to be sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. on August 6, 2015. The maximum statutory penalty for each violation of wire fraud is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.