It’s a tactic seen from a number of fraudsters recently; offering up their 401k as restitution when caught.
An ex-accounting manager who worked at timber giant Weyerhaeuser for over four decades “is suspected of stealing at least $4.5 million from the company by contracting with bogus vendors, including one in her mother’s name,” The Oregonian reports.
Susan L. Tranberg of Eugene, Oregon had worked for the Seattle-based company for 42 years, court records indicate.
The paper said that Tranberg acknowledged the fraud in a signed statement to Weyerhaeuser that she wrote on Jan. 15, “the day she was fired in a meeting with company officials at a hotel near the office in Springfield.”
“There is no (one) else to punish but ME,’’ Tranberg wrote, and offered to give up her vacation pay, retirement and 401K as restitution.
“Company officials say in court papers that Tranberg defrauded the business for at least 15 years by creating fake vendors and approving payment to the vendors by forging co-workers’ signatures,” the Oregonian added. “She also would hack into colleagues’ computer systems without authorization or their consent, the officials allege.
“I have no valid reason for what has happen (sic) except I made some very bad choices,’’ she wrote. “I can never repair the damage I have done but hope to try to make things right.”
Copycat crimes
In a separate case in August, Carol Werner, 62, was accused of stealing almost $50,000 from the Connecticut-based landscaping business over a 16-month period in 2017 and 2018.
“Werner offered to surrender her company 401K, which was worth about $4,000, in order to make a good faith deposit on her debt and said she will repay as much as she is able to,” according to The Stamford Advocate.
Her arrest followed a complaint filed by the company in December 2018, when the owner reported that Werner “may have taken as much as $70,000 from the company before she was fired, her three-page arrest affidavit said,” the paper said.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
