Former Office Manager Sentenced To 37 Months In Prison For Stealing More Than $253,000 From Her Employer

STATESVILLE, N.C. – Angelina Marie Parker, 44, of Lincolnton, N.C., was sentenced on Monday, January 11, 2016, to serve 37 months in prison for stealing more than $253,000 from her former employer, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Richard Voorhees ordered Parker to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $158,134 as restitution.   

U.S. Attorney Rose is joined in making today’s announcement by Matthew Quinn, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Charlotte Field Division.

According to filed court documents and yesterday’s sentencing hearing, Parker was employed as an office manager by Piedmont Urgent Care of North Carolina, Inc. (Piedmont Urgent Care), formerly located in Hickory, N.C.  Parker was indicted on 23 counts of uttering forged securities (checks) in 2009.  According to court documents and evidence from the sentencing hearing, beginning in 2004, Parker used her position to embezzle over $250,000 from her employer.  Court records show that Parker executed the embezzlement scheme by generating unauthorized company checks payable in her name and the name of a relative.  According to court records and court proceedings, Parker forged the signatures of the doctors who owned Piedmont Urgent Care, and deposited the checks into her bank account and the bank accounts of relatives. Court records also show that Parker concealed her theft of Piedmont Urgent Care’s money by altering the accounting records in the healthcare company’s computer system.  Court records and evidence presented at sentencing indicate that Parker used the money to pay for personal expenses.  Parker pleaded guilty in September 2014, to three counts of uttering counterfeit securities, namely the company’s checks, with the intent to deceive the organization.

At the sentencing hearing, the court heard victim testimony regarding the initial discovery of Parker’s embezzlement and the substantial impact Parker’s fraud had on Piedmont Urgent Care, its employees and the company’s owners.  Sentencing testimony revealed that the physicians who owned Piedmont Urgent Care first became aware of Parker’s embezzlement in 2009, after switching accounting firms.  When the physician’s confronted Parker of the fraud she admitted to stealing money.  According to court records, Parker later admitted to another person who worked at Piedmont Urgent Care that she had been stealing as much as $5,000 a month for five years from the company.  According to victim testimony during yesterday’s sentencing hearing, Piedmont Urgent Care was unable to recover from the effects of Parker’s embezzlement, and eventually 12 employees lost their jobs when the healthcare company ceased its operations in 2014. 

In handing down Parker’s sentence, Judge Voorhees noted the substantial victim impact of Parker’s embezzlement and imposed the highest sentence of imprisonment pursuant to federal Sentencing Guidelines.

Parker will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.  All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. 

The investigation was handled by the U.S. Secret Service.  In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose thanked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation for their invaluable assistance in this case. 

The prosecution for the government was handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Thomas O’Malley and Tiffany Mallory of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.