Ex-Hopkinton Woman Pleads Guilty To Fraud, Identity Theft

HOPKINTON, MA — A former Hopkinton woman pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and tax fraud stemming from her embezzlement of funds from her former employer. The woman, Julia Vaysglus, 36, worked as an office manager at a dental practice in Boston.

Vaysglus now lives in Campbell, Calif., but used to live in Hopkinton. From 2009 until she was terminated in February 2015, Vaysglus was the office manager of a Boston-area dental practice where her duties included tracking client invoices, depositing insurance payments into the practice’s bank account, and recording those deposits for accounting purposes.

Between 2009 and December 2014, Vaysglus embezzled more than $348,000 from the dental practice by diverting to herself at least 276 checks from various insurance companies for services rendered to patients, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the scheme, Vaysglus made the checks payable to herself, forged the signature of the dental firm’s owner on the checks, and deposited them into her bank account. Vaysglus failed to report the embezzled funds on her federal tax returns.

The charge of bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of $1 million. The charge of filing a false tax return provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence that must be served consecutively to any other sentence, one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.