Downingtown Woman Charged With Embezzling $194K from Employer, and Obtaining $100K in College Loans for her Children Using Co-workers’ Stolen Identity

PHILADELPHIA – Kimberly O’Toole, 49, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, was charged by Information today with four counts of wire fraud, announced Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen.

According to the Information, defendant Kimberly O’Toole engaged in an embezzlement scheme in which, from 2012 to 2013, she stole approximately $194,193.39 from her employer, Miwon North America (“Miwon”). Defendant Kimberly O’Toole’s husband was the President and General Manager at Miwon; defendant Kimberly O’Toole had accounting and bookkeeping duties at the company. In that role, defendant Kimberly O’Toole opened a fraudulent bank account in the company’s name that only she knew about and controlled. O’Toole then intercepted checks paid to Miwon by its customers, and deposited those checks into the sham bank account that she controlled. Defendant Kimberly O’Toole later withdrew the funds she embezzled for her own personal use, including to make mortgage payments for her personal residence in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and to pay her cable bill. When Miwon officials detected her fraud, defendant Kimberly O’Toole tried to cover-up the fraud by accessing the email account of a co-worker, without the co-worker’s knowledge or permission, in an effort to deceive company officials as to the truth about her embezzlement scheme.

Separately, during the same time period, defendant Kimberly O’Toole – who also had HR duties at Miwon, and thus had access to the company’s employees’ personnel files – stole the identity of a co-worker. Using that co-worker’s stolen identity, defendant Kimberly O’Toole took out three fraudulent Wells Fargo college loans on behalf of two of her children, who attended The Pennsylvania State University and North Carolina State University-Raleigh, respectively. This was done without the knowledge or consent of the victim. The total amount of the fraudulent loans obtained by defendant Kimberly O’Toole for the loans obtained using the victim’s stolen identity totaled approximately $104,500.

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum statutory sentence of 80 years’ incarceration, a fine of up to $1,000,000, three years of supervised release, and a $400 special assessment.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James Petkun.

An information is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.