Woman Charged With Stealing $1 Million From Law Firm Pleads Guilty

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Summary: Ex-law firm worker pleads guilty to stealing over $500,000.

A woman accused of stealing $1 million from a law firm in Naperville, Illinois, that employed her pleaded guilty last Friday to taking at least $500,000.

  

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Le Anna Kelty, 55, left the employment of Freedman, Anselmo, Lindberg, and Rappe — now known as Anselmo, Lindberg and Oliver — after working in the accounting department between 2006 and 2013, when she left their employment. The firm discovered a discrepancy in their finances during a 2014 audit.

Kelty meanwhile had moved on to a flooring company where she also stole money and served a sentence on a Will County embezzlement conviction. She just finished that sentence in December and was indicted by a grand jury for her embezzlement of more than $500,000 from her law firm — a Class 1 felony — rendering her ineligible for probation, DuPage County prosecutors explained.

“After years of stealing from a trusting employer, Le Anna Kelty’s deceit and greed finally caught up with her,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said. “Six years and more than $500,000 later, Ms. Kelty is now looking at a significant amount of time behind bars.”

Though letters written to DuPage County judges for Kelty claim she stole the money to pay for her husband’s medical bills, the government alleged in court documents that she instead embezzled money to pay for a $24,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a $40,000 boat and $55,000 pickup truck, which all were seized in a forfeiture proceeding.

Kelty used a dummy corporation to send checks from the firm and transferred the funds into her private accounts.

She is expected to face between four to 15 years in prison when she is sentenced in February for the felony charge, a much more substantial sentence than she received for stealing from the flooring company.

Source: Chicago Tribune