BOOKKEEPER SENTENCED IN THEFT FROM EMPLOYER

Tallahassee, Florida - Gregory R. Miller, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced today that Erica L. Goodwin, 29, of Tallahassee, Florida, was sentenced this morning in United States District Court to 70 months of imprisonment by Chief United States District Judge Robert L. Hinkle on fraud charges relating to her scheme to defraud her former employer, Affiliated Title Services, L.L.C. (ATS). Goodwin was also sentenced to three years of supervised release following her term of imprisonment, and ordered to pay $551,052.527 in restitution to Affiliated Title Services, and to pay $1,500 in special assessments to the United States.

Goodwin, hired as a bookkeeper at ATS, had access to various bank accounts of her employer and, without the knowledge of ATS, used her access to embezzle more than a half million dollars that she then used to buy a house, cars, trucks, a boat and trailer, jewelry, furniture, vacations, and other personal items. At the time Goodwin committed the fraud, she was serving a sentence of probation on state charges of check fraud.

At sentencing, Judge Hinkle found that Goodwin obstructed justice by continuing her fraud while on house detention and by lying while under oath to United States Magistrate Judge William Sherrill at a hearing to revoke Goodwin's pre-trial release in September. The Court further found that the defendant had used "sophisticated means" to assist in the commission and concealment of the fraud.

Mr. Miller commended the investigative efforts of the Tallahassee Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the successful prosecution of this case. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Kunz.
For additional information, please contact Alan Sprowls at (850) 942-8430.