Lynnwood woman sentenced to prison for embezzling nearly $300,000

SEATTLE — A Lynnwood woman was sentenced to prison on Friday for embezzling nearly $300,000 from her employer, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

Judith Wright, 75, was sentenced in Seattle to six months in prison and one year home detention.

A contract accountant, Wright was convicted of embezzling the money for over seven years from Transportation Demand Management, a Washington State passenger transportation company.

This is Wright’s second conviction of embezzlement.

In 1994, Wright was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for embezzling $45,000 from a bank where she served as chief financial officer.

According to court records, between Feb. 2010 and Jan. 2017, Wright wrote some 120 fraudulent checks to herself and disguised the payments in company books as if they were made to legitimate vendors.

When a new CFO began to question some of the entries, the fraud came to light.

An FBI analysis revealed that much of the money was used for non-business expenses, such as more than $78,000 to Nordstrom, more than $170,000 to a home shopping network and more than $20,000 to Costco.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Wright must pay $298,737 in restitution to her former employer.

©2022 Cox Media Group