JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman has pleaded guilty to embezzlement from an employee benefit plan, U.S. attorneys said Friday.
Andrea McCarthy, 63, faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison, authorities said.
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McCarthy is an owner of Truss Systems, LLC, a truss manufacturing business in Flagler County. According to the plea agreement, she embezzled all of the funds from the business' corporate profit sharing plan, and unlawfully used the pension funds to pay personal and other unrelated corporate expenses.
U.S. attorneys said McCarthy used some of the funds to pay personal investment obligations in another unrelated company she co-owns. The corporate profit sharing plan was a federally protected plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
In 2009, Truss Systems was having financial issues, according to U.S. attorneys.
In order to make the company's payroll, pay vendors, satisfy the company's mortgage payments and pay financial obligations of her unrelated company, McCarthy allegedly made 15 separate and illegal electronic funds transfers from the company's profit sharing plan's account, U.S. attorneys said.
The embezzlement, totaling $111,625, was accomplished by electronically transferring funds from the plan's account to the company's operating account. U.S. attorneys said McCarthy then wrote checks from the operating account to cover personal and business obligations.
McCarthy depleted the employees' profit sharing account, according to U.S. attorneys.
A sentencing date for McCarthy has not yet been set.