Embezzler admits theft of $1 million from firm

Chris Thyer, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced Tuesday that a North Little Rock woman has pleaded guilty to a wire-fraud charge in connection with a scheme to defraud her former employer, AGL Corp., of about $1 million.

Thyer said Regina Lynn Paff, 53, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. to the charge, which was filed in open court after she waived her right to have the case reviewed by a grand jury.

According to court documents, Paff was a general accountant for the Jacksonville business, and part of her duties included preparing the company’s payroll to send to a payroll processing company. Thyer said in a news release that Paff devised a scheme in which she created false payroll entries to pay herself additional paychecks, issue herself reimbursement checks to which she wasn’t entitled and pay herself commission checks.

He said that by carrying out the scheme from October 2008 until September 2012, Paff stole $991,640.32, although her actions caused a total loss to the business of about $1.16 million.

Court documents show that Paff created 44 false payroll entries that resulted in AGL paying $258,584.60 in additional regular payments, miscellaneous payments and expense reimbursements to her. Documents say she also created about 83 false payroll entries that resulted in the business paying her extra commissions totaling $880,455.45.

One false payroll entry she admitted creating would have provided her $27,117.50 in additional commissions, but the payment was stopped when the fraud was discovered, according to the criminal information to which she pleaded guilty.

Paff was represented by federal Public Defender Nicole Lybrand.

The criminal information, or charging document, focuses on a May 16, 2012, transaction in which Paff admitted she caused a wire communication to be transmitted in interstate commerce from a California bank to her account at Centennial Bank in Little Rock. The transfer was a direct deposit in the amount of $29,757.90.

When sentenced at a later date, after a pre-sentence investigation is completed, she faces up to 20 years in prison, up to three years’ probation and a fine of up to $250,000. Also, restitution of $1,166,157.55 is mandatory under Title 18, Section 3663A of the United States Code.

The FBI investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jana Harris. Neither Harris nor Lybrand are authorized to publicly discuss their cases.