Former Cashier at U.S. Naval Base in Japan Sentenced for Theft of Nearly $100,000

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Filipino woman who fled from Japan to the United States before being arrested in Overland Park, Kan., was sentenced in federal court today for stealing the equivalent of nearly $100,000 at a U.S. Naval base in Japan.

Cynthia Lopez Creseni 60, a citizen of the Philippines, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to two years in federal prison without parole. The court also entered a judicial order of removal for Creseni to be removed to the Philippines following incarceration.

On Aug. 18, 2017, Creseni pleaded guilty to theft of public money for stealing the equivalent of $99,068 from the Morale Welfare and Recreation Center (MWR) at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was notified about the theft of approximately $85,500 and ¥ 1,620,000 (aggregate value of $99,068) from a safe assigned to Creseni at the MWR cash cage. Creseni, who had worked at the base in various positions since 2000, served as the lead cashier of the game/slot room at the time of the theft.

Creseni officially reported the funds missing from her assigned safe after returning from a vacation to the United States in February 2015. Creseni, who denied taking the money, was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

In order to conceal her illegal behavior, Creseni secured loans from other people and a local bank in Japan to pay back the money so her thefts would not be detected by an audit. According to court documents, she also lied as to how much money she inventoried and falsified reconciliation documents that made the money appear as if it were accounted for during official audits. She spent the stolen money on plane tickets, a residence in Japan, and sent some of the money to her family in the Philippines.

According to court documents, Creseni sold her house and fled from Japan 11 days after being interviewed by NCIS. She used the stolen proceeds to finance both her return to the Philippines and her trip to the United States, where she spent the remaining $20,000 of the stolen money to pay for her living expenses.

Interviews of Creseni’s co-workers revealed that she might have had some financial problems. When investigators attempted to interview Creseni at her residence in Japan, they learned that she had vacated her home, sold it and moved to the Philippines. Efforts were made to locate Creseni in the Philippines, but were unsuccessful. Agents learned that Creseni entered the United States on July 15, 2015.

It took nearly two years for federal agents to track down Creseni, which they were able to do by obtaining subpoenas to obtain subscriber records from her Facebook and AT&T accounts. On Jan. 24, 2017, Creseni was located in Overland Park, Kan., and arrested by federal agents for immigration violations for overstaying her visa.

This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Moore and Sasha N. Rutizer of the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. It was investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) with assistance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).