A bookkeeper was sentenced to a court offer of one year in jail and five years of formal probation on Feb. 5 of embezzling over $1.3 million from a law firm and issuing unauthorized checks for her own benefit. The People objected to the court offer at the sentencing.
The defendant is Shawna Renee Barretto, 43, of Anaheim, who pled guilty on June 20, 2017 to felony counts of computer access fraud, falsifying records, grand theft, identity theft, and theft from an elder.
Between 2005 and 2012, Barretto worked as a bookkeeper and an office manager for two law firms and embezzled over $1.3 million from the law firms through deceptive record-keeping.
Barretto made unauthorized payments to her personal credit card accounts in the law firms’ names.
The defendant hid those fraudulent payments by entering false entries in the law firms’ computer-based accounting records and used accounts to make payments on personal expenses including her children’s private school tuition, golf club memberships, and other unauthorized expenses.
On May 12, 2012, an employee in one of the law firms was reviewing past bank records and discovered discrepancies in the financial records, including unauthorized checks, and reported it to the Irvine Police Department, who investigated this case.
