Turner Woman Sentenced for Embezzlement from Employee Benefit Plan

PORTLAND, Maine: A Turner woman was sentenced today in federal court in Portland for embezzling from an employee benefit plan, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced.

U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal sentenced Melissa Greenlaw, a/k/a Melissa Moore, 46, to 12 months and one day in prison and three years of supervised release. The court also ordered Greenlaw to pay $137,262.16 in restitution to the victims of the offense. Greenlaw pleaded guilty on June 4, 2019.

According to court records, Greenlaw was the Vice President of Operations for a health care company. In that capacity, she was a fiduciary for the company’s Deferred Savings and Profit Sharing Plan, a defined contribution 401(k) plan for employees to save for retirement. The plan was funded by amounts withheld from participating employees’ paychecks. From approximately July 2011 until May 2014, Greenlaw directed that funds that had been contributed by employees for deposit into the plan instead be used to pay company operating expenses, including bonuses and personal expenses for herself. Greenlaw misappropriated approximately $133,000 in employee contributions from the plan.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations; and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration investigated the case.