Former Rock Valley Trucking employee sentenced to five years prison
JANESVILLE — Rock County Judge Ken Forbeck all but banged on his podium when he said, "Show me the money!"
He spent several minutes grilling Heidi Wieser of Sauk City, formerly of Roscoe, Ill., about what she did with nearly $1 million she embezzled from Rock Valley Trucking, a Janesville business that is a division of Hufcor.
"For the benefit of the victims and the benefit of society, I would like to know where that money is and if any of it is available," Forbeck said.
Forbeck said he had a hard time believing Wieser's explanation that she spent the money on home remodeling, clothes, her sons' lunches and other sundries.
Wieser said she bought no assets that could be liquidated to pay back Rock Valley Trucking. She didn't save any of the money, she said.
"I have nothing significant," Wieser said.
Wieser's embezzlement came in two forms, according to the criminal complaint:
-- She rang up $330,000 in unauthorized charges to company credit cards at Victoria's Secret, The Limited, Crimson Ridge Spa and Target between May 2008 and April 2011. She concealed the purchases by copying and pasting legitimate transactions into monthly statements and classifying them as "field purchases."
-- She paid herself $665,000 in excess wages between May 2008 and April 2011. Her annual salary was $60,000, Wieser said.
Forbeck on Friday followed the plea agreement crafted by the Rock County District Attorney's Office and Wieser's attorney. He sentenced Wieser to five years in prison and five years of extended supervision followed by five years of probation.
Forbeck ordered her to pay the company $1.015 million. That includes the $996,057 awarded to Rock Valley Trucking in the default judgment of a civil suit that wrapped up in May in Rock County Court. The remaining $19,000 includes attorney and accounting fees.
Wieser faced 20 years in prison for three charges of felony theft from a business.
