Mustang Woman Pleads Guilty to $1.3 Million Embezzlement and Tax Fraud

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – VANESSA L. POLLARD, of Mustang, Oklahoma, pled guilty today to wire fraud and signing a false federal income tax return in connection with a $1.3 million embezzlement from an insurance agency in Canadian County, Oklahoma, announced Mark A. Yancey, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

On August 8, 2017, Pollard was charged by information with one count of wire fraud and one count of signing a false federal income tax return. According to the charges, Pollard worked for an insurance agency as a bookkeeper from April 1999 until early August 2016. As part of her job, she reviewed monthly bank statements, made entries in an internal accounting system, and reconciled those records with a business checking account at Yukon National Bank. She was accused of writing unauthorized checks and making unauthorized interstate wire transfers from the business checking account to pay her personal credit card accounts. The information also alleged that she altered bank statements to conceal these payments from the agency’s management.

Today, Pollard pled guilty to transmitting $3,178 through interstate wires with the intent to defraud the insurance agency in January 2014. In a plea agreement, she has agreed to forfeit property purchased with funds traceable to her embezzlement, including her house in Mustang, two trucks, a sports car, three motorcycles, a boat, two jet skis, and a retirement account. She also stipulated that the total loss from her embezzlement was $1,344,915.02.

In addition to pleading guilty to wire fraud, Pollard pled guilty to signing a false tax return. She admitted that on May 13, 2013, she signed a personal federal tax return for the 2012 calendar year that she knew was false because it reported only $50,736 in total income when she knew her 2012 income was substantially higher.

At sentencing, Pollard faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud count, plus three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and restitution. She also faces up to three years in prison on the tax count, in addition to one year of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and restitution to the Internal Revenue Service for the tax loss. She will be sentenced in approximately 90 days. Reference is made to the information and other public filings for further information.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigations and the United States Secret Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark R. Stoneman.