Ex-Worker Blames Marriage Issues for $400K Law Firm Theft, Says She Didn't Know She'd Taken So Much
A former office manager has pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $400,000 from a West Virginia personal injury law firm, saying that she had no idea she’d taken so much.
The law firm Bucci, Bailey & Javins didn’t either until after they terminated Terry Workman after seven years of employment, the Charleston Daily Mail reports. The firm discovered the theft only when Workman’s replacement came on board, an assistant prosecutor said.
Workman will be sentenced next month in the Kanawha Circuit Court case. Seven of the 13 embezzlement counts against her were dropped as the result of a plea bargain.
She blamed issues in her marriage for her decision to begin writing checks of $800 to $1,200 to herself and making personal use of the law firm’s credit card, the newspaper reports.
Although Workman is supposed to make restitution, “We still don’t know where the money is,” assistant prosecutor Fred Giggenbach told Judge Duke Bloom. “She says she does not have it. But that’s a lot of money she could have access to.”
