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N.H. woman sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing nearly $500K from employer
Purchases included a hot tub and “lavish” tickets to watch Tom Brady’s return to Gillette Stadium, said U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young.
A former Keene, New Hampshire, woman was sentenced last week in federal court for stealing almost half a million dollars from her former employer.
Stephanie Pratt, 39, was the office administrator for a company based in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, which gave her full access to its finances, including its bank and credit cards. Over the course of the six-and-a-half years she worked there, she stole $492,325.34 from the company, the New Hampshire U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
She made more than 1,000 unauthorized personal purchases on the company’s credit cards, including over $5,600 spent on NFL tickets for Tom Brady’s return to Gillette Stadium as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback in 2021 and over $50,000 on various Amazon purchases that included a hot tub. She also cashed unauthorized checks to herself, entering them as payments to legitimate vendors in the company’s accounting system, using the money on “things like plane tickets and miscellaneous herbs and spices,” per the statement.
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“Stephanie Pratt is a greedy, serial fraudster who is being sent to prison for defrauding her employer and siphoning almost half-a-million dollars to live well beyond her means,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston division.
U.S. District Court Judge Landya B. McCafferty sentenced Pratt to 30 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release. Pratt began stealing from the company only six months after she was released from jail for stealing almost $10,000 from her previous employer.
“The defendant’s criminal conduct was bold,” said Jane E. Young, the U.S. attorney for New Hampshire.
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Pratt pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on Aug. 6 after repeatedly lying to the company. According to authorities, she claimed the owner had her cash the unauthorized checks to send money to the owner’s son who, unbeknownst to her, had passed away. She also edited the company’s credit card statements, removing unauthorized purchases, and when confronted about the missing entries, she allegedly said she had adjusted them to make them “easier to read.” She attributed her misuse of company credit cards to “clicking the wrong button at checkout,” though that happened more than 1,000 times, officials said. After she was fired for stealing, she demanded a Christmas bonus on the way out.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander S. Chen.
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