$40 Bounced Check Led to $884K Theft Case Against Longtime Law Firm Office Manager
A 24-year employee of a Chicago law firm has been charged with felony theft after allegedly stealing almost $900,000 from Kelly Olson Michod DeHaan & Richter.
Other employees at the nearly 140-year-old business law firm became suspicious of office manager Joan Sanchez after a $40 check bounced while she was on vacation in Hawaii, according to the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Between 2002 and 2009, Sanchez wrote 176 checks putting $836,500 into her personal bank account and another 58 checks totaling $47,799 to cover lunches with her mother at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange lunch club, said Assistant State’s Attorney Nicholas Trutenko. Sanchez, who is now 52, allegedly forged a partner’s signature on the checks and made erroneous journal entries to conceal the thefts.
“They are just allegations at this point in time,” her attorney Al Knorr, tells the Sun-Times.
Sanchez, who had been the firm’s office manager for 21 years, was arrested Tuesday at her home by Chicago police. A Cook County Circuit Court judge set bail yesterday at $100,000, reports a Southtown Star article.
“It’s a terrible breach of trust,” partner Stephen Cohen tells the newspaper. He heads the firm’s Indiana office.
Last updated on May 13 to include subsequent Southtown Star coverage.
