Woman Accused of Embezzling $1.2 Million from St. Louis County Company

ST. LOUIS – A woman from Lake St. Louis turned herself in Monday to face an indictment accusing her of embezzling $1.2 million from her employer.

Kari Bertels, 44, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on April 29 with five counts of wire fraud. She turned herself in Monday, appeared in court and pleaded not guilty.

The indictment accuses Bertels of using her company credit card to make purchases for herself and relatives from Oct. 9, 2018, to Jan. 12, 2026, including $19,815 in beauty products from Red Aspen, $16,512 in fitness coaching, $42,407 in DoorDash deliveries, $59,994 in Amazon purchases, $15,000 in airfare for herself and relatives for domestic and international trips, $27,044 from Instacart, $14,331 in jewelry from Diamonds Direct, and $14,110 at a Sandals resort.

Bertels was an accountant and a senior financial analyst at the St. Louis County company. Her responsibilities included approving expenses reports and paying the company credit card bills and other business expenses with the company checking account, the indictment says. She concealed her embezzlement by refusing to submit monthly expense reports for the unauthorized credit card purchases, re-directing the credit card statements from work to her home and dividing the payments for her unauthorized credit card purchases into smaller amounts in the accounting system, the indictment says.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or both prison and a fine.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin Schute is prosecuting the case.