A Norfolk woman pleaded guilty Monday to an embezzlement scheme that resulted in a loss of more than $300,000.
According to court documents, Evelyn Gregory, 49, worked as the office manager of a women’s health clinic from 2007 through April 2016, and had access to multiple office credit cards which she misappropriated for her own use without the practice’s “knowledge or consent.”
During that time Gregory incurred $250,000 in unauthorized purchases of office credit cards.
As Gregory’s scheme progressed, she stopped paying office expenses, which caused the practice to accrue debts of which the owners were not aware because “Gregory concealed her activities by withholding credit card statements from the practice’s accountants,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In the latter years of her tenure, Gregory started a debt collection company to which she referred debts owed to the practice without the owner’s knowledge or consent, prosecutors said.
Gregory and her son operated that company, and “aggressively pursued” patients for payment, collecting nearly $50,000 in funds owed to the practice.
Gregory did not use the collected funds to satisfy the patients’ debt, instead charging the debt off the practice’s books and depositing the collected funds into her personal accounts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Gregory pleaded guilty to money laundering and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 12.
