Bookkeeper stole $1M from SC business: feds

Karen Rhett was the bookkeeper at a South Carolina real estate agency for the far better portion of 25 a long time, according to federal court docket documents.

She was also embezzling from it, prosecutors claimed.

A federal choose sentenced the 59-calendar year-previous to 3 yrs in prison on Monday, April 4, immediately after she pleaded responsible to felony prices final year. She was also requested to commit a few years on supervised launch and spend restitution.

Rhett’s protection legal professional did not quickly respond to McClatchy News’ ask for for comment on April 6. But he reported in court docket filings that she took comprehensive accountability for the theft right after the FBI confirmed up at her dwelling in Mount Pleasant, just exterior of Charleston, in 2020.

“Painfully, and with deep sorrow, she admits that she took benefit of her posture of have confidence in as a bookkeeper,” said George Rutledge DuRant, who represented Rhett. “She admits that her theft was enduring and commenced prolonged back with a comparatively smaller total of cash. It escalated with time. The far more she stole, the more challenging it turned to stop.”

In accordance to court paperwork, Rhett worked for Simmons Realty Enterprise, a real estate company run by David and Elizabeth Simmons.

“It took three long many years of tiresome investigative function by the spouse and children and a forensic accountant (former IRS Exclusive Agent) to uncover this sophisticated and complex fraudulent plan,” Bart Daniel, who represented the Simmons, advised McClatchy News in a statement. “The Simmons Family members is relieved that justice has finally been served.”

Prosecutors claimed Rhett oversaw the company’s accounting and organization information and was “in a situation of trust” when she allegedly began siphoning off cash.

She is accused of transferring money to herself, normally transferring the money among other organization entities before it ultimately landed in her account. Rhett also built up business invoices for bogus costs and wrote checks to herself just before recording the payments as genuine, the government claimed.

The Simmons finally fired her, and FBI brokers frequented Rhett at dwelling in July 2020, courtroom documents point out.

In accordance to her lawyer, Rhett confessed to the embezzlement the pursuing month and started cooperating with federal investigators.

“It really should be comprehended that Karen created the determination to confess entirely on her very own and quickly, within just just one week of the F.B.I. knocking upon the doorway of her home,” her attorney mentioned.

Rhett marketed the 4,000-square-foot dwelling she shared with her husband and daughter for $982,000 in December 2020, according to genuine estate listings. Her attorney explained she wrote a look at for restitution totaling $640,633 and submitted it to the court docket in January 2021.

Rhett was charged by felony info and pleaded guilty to prices of wire fraud and generating wrong statements, courtroom documents demonstrate. Her attorney claimed she was fired from her new occupation at a holistic nutrition retail outlet when information of the guilty plea broke in April 2021.

Rhett subsequently started out a enterprise, Cupcake Bouquets by Karen, via which she bakes and sells “delicious and artistic, primarily floral in structure, cupcakes,” her attorney reported.

From August 2021 to February 2022, he mentioned, she has bought $3,648 value of cupcakes.

“Karen is persuaded that Cupcake Bouquets by Karen, LLC would manage her the means by which she can make significant payments towards entire restitution,” her attorney reported in sentencing files. “In terms of taking on new orders and developing this business enterprise as it stands now, Karen has been watchful not to just take on too several new orders or to mature too rapidly as her imminent long term is, at ideal, unsure.”

Rhett’s attorney had requested the decide to sentence her to a interval of residence confinement, pointing in aspect to her struggles with melancholy considering the fact that the charges arrived to light and a latest analysis of Fibromyalgia.

He also said it is critical for Rhett to be residence with her 21-12 months-outdated daughter, who has reportedly struggled with her own mental health and fitness following a small-lived job as a singer-songwriter. According to sentencing documents, her daughter beforehand sang at “various east coast college gymnasiums and performance halls with a message versus bullying” as a teen.

Rhett submitted 6 letters of assistance penned by her therapist and different family members customers also calling for leniency.

“Karen has endured the repercussions of a self-imposed sentence, shame and guilt just before her friends and family members and the complete local community,” her lawyer claimed. “She has endured the reduction of nearly her each and every possession and she has experienced the steady agony of darkish melancholy. She has been punished severely now.”

At sentencing, the decide encouraged Rhett serve her jail sentence at FPC Alderson in West Virginia so that she can receive medical procedure. As soon as she is produced, the judge barred her from possessing any call with the victims.

The amount of money of restitution she owes is listed as “TBD” in the courtroom docket.

This story was originally released April 6, 2022 6:33 PM.

Hayley Fowler is a reporter at The Charlotte Observer masking breaking and serious-time news throughout North and South Carolina. She has a journalism degree from the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and beforehand worked as a legal reporter in New York City ahead of signing up for the Observer in 2019.