Former P&G Employee Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Company

CINCINNATI – Susan M. Ruhe, 53, of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of bank fraud. Ruhe defrauded her former employer, Procter & Gamble, of more than $454,000.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Jason A. Hayden, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service announced the plea entered into before U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black.

According to the Statement of Facts in this case, Ruhe was employed by Procter & Gamble, the multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Cincinnati, from July 1989 through June 2013. Her last job title was Executive Assistant in the Global Beauty Care Business Development Group. In that capacity, her primary job duties were executive travel planning, expense reporting, calendar management and the scheduling of team meetings and events.

From November 2007 through the end of her employment, Ruhe defrauded the company by requesting that the payment department issue corporate checks to be used to pay for expenses that Procter & Gamble had incurred in the ordinary course of business. In reality, she used the corporate checks to make payments on her personal credit card accounts. Both credit accounts were through Citibank. Ruhe also defrauded Procter & Gamble by using her corporate credit card to pay for more than $13,000 of her personal expenses.

To conceal her scheme, Ruhe used the email of an executive without consent to approve her requests for corporate checks. She would then designate an unwitting third party from whom she would retrieve the checks in accordance with company policy. In total, she obtained 40 fraudulent corporate checks through this scheme.

As part of the plea agreement, Ruhe has agreed to pay more than $454,000 in restitution to Procter & Gamble.

Bank fraud is punishable by up to 30 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $1 million.

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the U.S. Secret Service and Assistant United States Attorney Deborah D. Grimes, who is representing the United States in this case.

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