Former Controller Of Saint Paul Town And Country Club Sentenced To 42 Months Of Prison For Embezzlement Scheme

JULIE ANN LEE, 53, former controller of the Town & Country Club, was sentenced today to 42 months of federal prison for operating a million dollar embezzlement scheme. LEE, who pleaded guilty on April 4, 2018, was sentenced by Senior Judge Donovan W. Frank in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“For more than eight years, Ms. Lee used her position to embezzle more than a million dollars from Town and Country. She took elaborate steps to hide her deception from her employer, her colleagues and the club’s members who entrusted her with the club’s finances, said United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald. “Today’s sentence highlights the seriousness of financial crimes.”

According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, from 2008 through December 2016, LEE was the controller of the Town & Country Club (“TCC”) in St. Paul, Minnesota. In her role, LEE was responsible for managing TCC’s finances and had authority to sign and issue checks on behalf of TCC as well as signing authority on TCC’s bank accounts, including a line of credit TCC had with Alliance Bank. LEE used her position as controller to devise a scheme to embezzle more than $1 million from TCC over the course of eight years.

As part of her embezzlement scheme, LEE fraudulently issued herself more than 50 checks totaling approximately $163,357 directly from TCC’s bank accounts. LEE also stole approximately $250,000 in cash from TCC, which she deposited into her personal bank account. LEE also made payments on her personal credit cards directly from TCC bank accounts totaling approximately $764,932. LEE spent the funds she embezzled on things unrelated to TCC, including personal travel, home improvements and her mortgage, a 2013 Dodge Charger, a 2015 GMC Sierra K3500 pickup truck, a motorcycle, and a recreational vehicle.

LEE admitted to attempting to conceal her embezzlement scheme and cover the shortage of money in TCC’s bank accounts by taking advances on TCC’s line of credit at Alliance Bank. As a result of LEE’s embezzlement, TCC was left without sufficient funds to make its quarterly payroll tax payments to the IRS. In order to conceal the shortage of funds, LEE filed false quarterly payroll tax returns with the IRS understating TCC’s payroll tax liability. At times, LEE also filed TCC’s quarterly payroll tax returns late and made TCC’s quarterly tax payments late, which resulted in TCC paying more than $300,000 in interest and penalties to the IRS.

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald thanked the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Secret Service, and the Saint Paul Police Department for their work on the investigation, and Assistant United States Attorney Joseph H. Thompson for prosecuting the case.

Defendant Information:

JULIE ANN LEE, 53

Farmington, MN

Convicted:

• Wire fraud, 1 count
• Filing a false tax return, 1 count

Sentenced:

• 42 months imprisonment
• 3 years supervised release
• $1,178,189 in restitution
• $200 special assessment

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United States Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota: (612) 664-5600