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Louisiana Woman Sentenced to Prison for Wire Fraud

Published November 2, 2021

A Louisiana woman has been sentenced to federal prison for wire fraud after causing the company she worked for to pay her husband for vacation time he did not earn.

Louisiana – Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced today that Melissa H. Sepulvado, 59, of Zwolle, Louisiana, was sentenced by Chief United States District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. to 12 months and one day in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, on wire fraud charges.  Sepulvado was also forced to pay a total of $145,000 in restitution.

On May 13, 2021, Sepulvado pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Sepulvado and her husband worked for Weyerhaeuser Company (“Weyerhaeuser”) in a mill in Zwolle, Louisiana, according to material provided to the court at the guilty plea hearing. Sepulvado worked as a Senior Support Specialist at the company and had been there for 17 years, while her husband worked as an hourly worker. Her principal responsibilities included using Weyerhaeuser’s internet-based, electronic payroll system to verify and approve payroll entries for hourly workers at the Zwolle mill. She also looked over hourly workers’ vacation pay requests. Weyerhaeuser gave vacation payment to some of its hourly workers, which was earned based on the duration of employment with the company and earnings paid to them for the vacation time taken.

Using her position and access to the payroll system, Sepulvado defrauded Weyerhaeuser of $145,000 from November 2014 to April 2017. She routinely entered vacation payout requests for her husband for hours he did not work, and despite the fact that she was not supposed to review or approve her husband’s pay requests, she did so and sent the approved requests to their payroll department via electronic wire, which was located outside of Louisiana. Money was then deposited into Sepulvado’s husband’s bank account by Weyerhaeuser based on the fake payment requests.

Sepulvado tried to hide the fraud by backdating several of the vacation compensation requests, entering them for pay periods that were months or years old. The requests were hidden from routine system audits as a result of these measures.

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Cadesby B. Cooper.