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August 31, 2022

Ex-CFO pleads guilty in $1.5M embezzlement case

PHOTO | Pixabay.com
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo

A Fairfield woman who was charged with embezzling $1.5 million from her employer pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Tuesday to one count of wire fraud.

Carolina Guerreno, 49, entered the plea in a proceeding before Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford. She remains free on a $50,000 bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for Nov. 28.

Sentencing guidelines have been calculated at 41 to 51 months imprisonment, plus a fine of between $15,000 and $150,000, a plea agreement document shows, though the judge can impose a non-guideline sentence.

Guerreno is also expected to be ordered to pay restitution. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the victim company has recovered approximately $316,424 of the $1.5 million loss to date. According to the plea document, Guerreno has agreed to make restitution for the $1.2 million difference.

At the time of the offense, Guerreno had been working as the chief financial officer for a financial services company in Shelton.

Guerreno formerly worked as CFO for Barnum Financial Group in Shelton, online records show.

The company issued the following statement via email: "At this time we are not making any comments on this matter, other than client monies do not flow through our finance department, therefore no client information or funds were ever in jeopardy."

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Guerreno had access to her employer’s bank accounts and was allowed to initiate financial transactions, including wiring company funds to other bank accounts.  

Prosecutors claim she stole the money over a period of two years, from January 2019 until the company detected the theft in February 2021.

Guerreno embezzled the $1.5 million by “altering company financial transactions and directing electronic payments from her employer’s bank account to her credit card accounts, her personal bank accounts, and to pay her home equity line of credit,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Court documents show Guerreno altered contract employee accounts by changing the banking information to her own, causing a payment to be deposited in her account. She would then revert the information back to the original. She also created duplicate payees that included her personal banking information. Once the fraudulent transaction went through, she deleted the duplicate payee. On Feb. 11, 2021, the month the scheme was detected, Guerreno wired $50,546 from her employer’s account to her bank account, according to the government.

Attorney Allison Near of the law firm Jacobs & Dow in New Haven, who is representing Guerreno, could not be reached for comment.

Contact Michelle Tuccitto Sullo at msullo@newhavenbiz.com.

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