Cobb Couple Gets Prison Time in $1.3 Million Theft

Patch Staff Report

According to Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds, a Marietta couple has been sentenced to prison after being convicted earlier this month of racketeering charges in a $1.3 million theft from the woman’s employer.

On Tuesday afternoon, Cobb Superior Court Judge Reuben M. Green sentenced Angela Lynn Williamson, 45, to 40 years, with 15 years to serve in custody and the rest on probation. Scott Brian Williamson, 47, was sentenced to 40 years with 2 years to serve in custody and the rest on probation.

Each was ordered to pay restitution of $1.1 million to Angela Williamson’s former employer, InterContinental Marble (ICM).

A Cobb jury found both Williamsons guilty of racketeering charges on May 2, at the end of a week-long trial. Angela Williamson was convicted on three counts and Scott Williamson on two counts.

Beginning in the year 2000, Angela Williamson was employed by ICM, a Marietta-based importer of stone for fireplaces. She was the office manager and took on bookkeeping and accounting duties, even changing the company’s passwords on its bank accounts without informing her employer. The company’s CEO, Karen Geiger, testified that she discovered there was a problem in May 2011, when Angela was out of town and Karen opened the mail, including bank statements.

Over the years, Angela Williamson had written unauthorized checks to herself and paid personal bills with company funds, concealing the payments in the company’s books. At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Geiger said Angela Williamson had been a trusted employee. “I’m still in shock,” Geiger told the court.

During some lean times at the business while Angela Williamson was still employed there, Geiger had liquidated her children’s college funds and her own 401(k) to keep the business afloat. “No matter how little cash we had to pay our bills, Angela still stole every week from ICM,” Geiger said.

Deputy Chief ADA John Melvin prosecuted the case and reiterated that the Williamsons clearly had lived beyond their means. “Together the two averaged $80,000 per year in legitimate income, yet they bought three homes, two boats, four cars and had a personal chef. They enjoyed a lifestyle they could not afford but for the thefts. With this sentence, Judge Green sends a clear message to the community that crime doesn’t pay in  Cobb County,” Melvin said.

In 1999, Angela Williamson pleaded guilty to stealing $135,000 from a previous employer, Cardiovascular Medicine. She was granted First Offender treatment, and thus the conviction was not revealed on background checks.