Cook County prosecutors have charged office manager Joan Sanchez with embezzling more than $880,000 from Chicago law firm Kelly, Olson, Michod, Dehann & Richter LLC. The embezzlement apparently occurred over a seven-year period from 2002 to 2009, during which time Sanchez alledgely wrote hundreds of checks from the firm to herself and falsified an unknown number of spending reports to cover her tracks.
The scheme may have gone unnoticed indefinitely, but everything unraveled last year while Sanchez was on vacation. The firm bounced a $40 check written from an account that their falsified records showed to have sufficient funds.
Sanchez is now being held on $100,000 bail.