Woman charged with theft of over $760,000 from business
TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) – A woman has been charged with multiple counts of theft after her employer noticed several unauthorized business transactions that took place over the course of 16 years.
According to court documents, on Jan. 17, one of the owners of Advanced Process Combinatorics, Joseph Pekny, met with police to report that a recent accounting of the business had turned up financial discrepancies.
Pekny told the officer that one of his employees, 64-year-old Laura Jean Hettinger, had admitted to him that she had been writing checks from the company account and depositing them into her own in order to pay her credit card bills. He noted that the thefts occurred in increments beginning around the time Hettinger had been hired on in 2001.
A review of Hettinger’s bank records by police determined that she had written several checks from her employer’s bank account, either depositing the money into her own account or using it to make personal credit card payments.
The unauthorized transactions were determined to have taken place between 2001 and 2017 and totaled $762,731.08.
Hettinger has been charged with two counts of corrupt business influence and five counts of theft.
