Houston Woman Heads to Federal Prison for Defrauding Former Employer

HOUSTON – A former employee of United Transport Tankcontainers Inc. (UTT) has been ordered to federal prison following her conviction of wire fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Marcella Jones aka Marcella Jones-Hatch, 45, of Houston, pleaded guilty Oct.6, 2015, admitting she caused a loss of nearly $1.8 million to her former employer.

Today, U.S. District Judge David Hittner, who accepted the guilty plea, handed Hatch a 78-month sentence to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. She was further ordered to pay $1,796,945.67 in restitution. In handing down the sentence, Judge Hittner noted the defendant’s prior criminal history.

Hatch was hired in the accounting department at UTT in 2007. As part of her plea, she admitted that between July 2008 and August 2014, she executed a scheme to defraud her former employer. As part of her scheme, she created fraudulent payment requests and submitted them to UTT. As a result, the company then sent the payments to her personal bank account which she used for her own personal benefit. The estimated total losses to UTT as a result of the scheme was $1,796,945.67.

Hatch will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.  

The charges are the result of an investigation by the Secret Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Braddock is prosecuting the case.