Louisiana Bookkeeper Sentenced to 5 Years, Ordered to Pay Over $3 Million For Fraud
Louisiana Bookkeeper Sentenced to 5 Years, Ordered to Pay Over $3 Million For Fraud
Published December 12, 2022
Louisiana – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Karen Duhon, 67, of Berwick, Louisiana, has been sentenced by Chief United States District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. to 60 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, on mail fraud charges. Duhon was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3,391,598.
In December 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Duhon, and on August 12, 2021, she pled guilty to one count of mail fraud. From October 1973 through August 2014, Duhon worked as a bookkeeper at Capital Management Consultants, Inc. (CMCI), a family-owned business in Morgan City, Louisiana. Beginning in January 1999, Duhon took money from CMCI without permission. Duhon began writing checks to herself in excess of her authorized compensation with the help of CMCI’s treasurer at the time, which the treasurer would subsequently sign. Duhon deposited the checks in her and her husband’s numerous accounts. To hide these payments, she would make bogus accounting entries in CMCI’s records.
The amount of loss suffered by CMCI was $3,263,677.06.
In addition, Duhon and the treasurer helped members of the company owner’s family with their personal finances, such as paying bills and balancing accounts. This provided Duhon access to funds linked to a family member’s brokerage account. Duhon used this brokerage account to pay $127,920.94 in costs on her own American Express cards from November 2012 to January 2014, with the help and encouragement of the treasurer and without the victim’s family member’s permission. Furthermore, in December 2013, Duhon mailed or caused to be mailed to American Express a check in the amount of $8,370.03 written on the victim family member’s account, with the intent to deceive.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Forrest Phillips.
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