An Elkhart woman who collected as much as $429,000 in wages by billing her employer for fake hours was sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday.
Kimberly Kay McGuire, 49, was sentenced to 60 months in prison for wire fraud followed by 24 months on two counts of aggravated identity theft. She will be supervised for one year upon her release.
This story by Jordan Fouts originally appeared in The Elkhart Truth.
The U.S. District Court judge in Northern Indiana also ordered $584,506 in restitution be paid. Judge Robert Miller Jr. handed down her sentence, which was even harsher than the punishment sought by U.S. attorneys, after hearing from one witness who provided a victim impact statement.
The restitution represents the total amount authorities believe McGuire cost RC Industries, an RV supplier, between 2012 and 2017 while working as the human resources manager, plus the cost to the company of undoing the damage after it was discovered. Authorities say she logged work hours for about 143 former employees and had their paychecks electronically deposited into an account of hers or forged their signatures on paper checks.
McGuire said she needed the money to help cover the cost of running a soft pretzel franchise in an Indianapolis mall. She pleaded guilty to all three counts shortly after she was charged in February, though she says she took closer to $370,126 in pay.
