A Lackawanna County woman who embezzled more than $411,000 from an agency that investigates child abuse will spend time in a federal prison.
Senior U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion sentenced Angela Saar, 51, of Olyphant, to a year and a day in prison. Mannion also ordered her to repay $411,940.21 to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The center conducts forensic interviews of abused and neglected children, assesses children’s medical needs and offers therapy. The interviews often aid local law enforcement agencies in charging abusers with crimes.
Mannion sentenced Saar on May 29 at the federal courthouse in Scranton. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud on Sept. 10.
Saar oversaw finances
Saar was the center’s fiscal manager from Dec. 16, 2016, to June 10, 2022, according to a court document that formed the basis of her guilty plea. As manager, she oversaw all the center’s money, grants and financial records and data, including its bi-weekly payroll.
She illegally electronically transferred money to her credit union or bank accounts between November 2018 and June 2022, according to the document.
“For several consecutive pay periods in 2018 into early 2019, Saar overpaid herself by thousands of dollars,” the document says.
A second ripoff method
In March 2019, she changed up her method. She started creating false mileage reimbursements in QuickBooks, a financial tracking software, then processed the reimbursements through Intuit, a business software.
“After the fraudulent mileage reimbursements were processed through Intuit, Saar would go back into Quickbooks and delete the fraudulent mileage reimbursements,” the court document says. “To make the dollar values balance, Saar would inflate other line items in QuickBooks.”
Because Saar took money for mileage, it was not taxed either. The mileage money went to her bank account.
Mannion recommended the federal Bureau of Prison house Saar “at a low-security camp as close as possible to family and friends.”
He ordered her to report for prison on June 20 by 2 p.m.
