Local woman charged with embezzlement

U.S. Attorney’s Office: Kimberly O’Toole allegedly stole from her employer and stole the identity of her co-worker

A Downingtown woman was charged on Friday for allegedly embezzling nearly $200,000 from her employer and then stealing the identity of her co-worker to obtain student loans for her children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

According to the Information, an accusation, defendant Kimberly O’Toole, 49, of Downingtown, allegedly engaged in an embezzlement scheme from 2012 to 2013 in which she stole approximately $194,194 from her employer, Miwon North America, known as Miwon. She was charged on Friday with four counts of wire fraud, announced Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen.

O’Toole’s husband was the president and general manager at Miwon and O’Toole had accounting and bookkeeping duties at the company. In that role, O’Toole reportedly opened a fraudulent bank account in the company’s name that only she knew about and controlled, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Lappen announced the following: O’Toole then reportedly intercepted checks paid to Miwon by its customers, and deposited those checks into the sham bank account that she controlled. She later withdrew the funds she allegedly embezzled for her own personal use, including to make mortgage payments for her personal residence in Downingtown and to pay her cable bill.

When Miwon officials detected her fraud, O’Toole reportedly tried to cover-up the fraud by accessing the email account of a co-worker, without their knowledge or permission, in an effort to deceive company officials as to the truth about her embezzlement scheme.

Lappen announced that during that same time period, O’Toole, who also had HR duties at Miwon with had access to the company’s employees’ personnel files, allegedly stole the identity of a

co-worker. Using the stolen identity, O’Toole reportedly took out three fraudulent Wells Fargo college loans on behalf of two of her children, who attended The Pennsylvania State University and North Carolina State University-Raleigh. This separate scheme was done without the knowledge or consent of the victim. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the fraudulent loans O’Toole obtained using the victim’s stolen identity totaled approximately $104,500.

If convicted, she faces a maximum statutory sentence of 80 years of incarceration, a fine of up to $1 million, three years of supervised release and a $400 special assessment.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James Petkun.