ST. LOUIS — An O'Fallon, Missouri, woman pleaded guilty to multiple felonies for scamming a trust out of $670,000 over nearly five years.
Paula Smith, 68, pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with the scam that ran from October 2013 to June 2018.
According to a press release from the Eastern District of Missouri State's Attorney Sayler Flemming's office, Smith was working as a bookkeeper for the lucrative D.E.W. Trust account when she wrote numerous checks to herself. The checks totaled $670,000.
She then covered up the fraudulent checks by mislabeling them as being advance payments to a trustee or payments to a vendor.
The press release said she used the money to buy herself a 2017 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and a 2018 Keystone Hornet Hideout 26RLS Travel Trailer.
Of the more than 20 companies contributing to the trust, 12 of them were charitable organizations in the St. Louis area, the press release said.
Her sentencing is set for Oct. 21, 2021.
