Former Waltham Company Employee To Plead Guilty To Embezzling $3M

WALTHAM, MA – The former executive assistant of a Waltham-based technology company agreed to plead guilty in connection with a fraud and embezzlement scheme that netted her more than $3 million.

Shivani Patel, 38, of Vineyard Haven, was charged in federal court this week with bank fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns. According to the terms of her plea agreement, the government will recommend a sentence of 57 months in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine between $20,000 and $200,000, restitution and forfeiture.

As an executive assistant to the chief financial officer, Patel’s duties included retrieving incoming mail containing customer checks made payable to her employer, recording the checks into the payment system, and depositing the checks into her employer’s bank account.

From around February 2012 through July 2017, Patel embezzled approximately $3,076,369 from her then employer for her personal use, according to court documents. Specifically, in February 2012, Patel created a company with a name nearly identical to that of her then employer — i.e., using her employer’s name but just adding an “s” to the end — and opened a business banking account in the sham company’s name. She then took customer checks payable to her employer from the mail, deposited those checks into the sham company’s bank account, and concealed her embezzlement by making false entries in her employer’s billing system, according to the prosecutor.

To disguise the funds, authorities said Patel funneled this money through multiple bank accounts. Court documents said Patel also filed income tax returns for the tax years 2012 through 2016 in which she intentionally underreported her income by failing to disclose the money she had stolen from her employer.

A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the Court.

Former Waltham Company Employee Embezzled $3 ...