Law Practice Management

Bookkeeper Gets 51 Months for Stealing $948K From Law Firm

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A former bookkeeper at a Wichita, Kan., law firm has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for stealing $948,000 while she was still employed there.

Vicki Olivarez pleaded guilty to forging signatures on two checks while working at the Pistotnik Law Offices. She also admitted that she repeatedly wrote checks on the firm’s client trust account between 2004 and 2009 and deposited the money into her personal accounts, reports the Associated Press.

An earlier article in the Wichita Eagle (scroll down) says Olivarez was accused of writing 441 checks to herself and her husband and to cash between September 2004 and September of last year, when her employment at the law firm ended.

A previous ABAJournal.com post links to numerous articles about similar crimes by employees of other law firms.

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