Ms. Catherine Corrine Daly was charged with embezzlement after allegedly misappropriating monies as the office manager at the law firm Reagan Fondren.
As office manager, Ms. Daly had access to the firm’s operating account so she could pay the firm’s operating expenses. Ms. Daly had two American Express accounts with Ms. Daly and two of her relatives as authorized users. The cards for Ms. Daly’s accounts were used to purchase items such as clothing, shoes, designer handbags, jewelry, personal services at nail and beauty salons, and travel expenses.
Ms. Daly then allegedly used the money in the firm’s operating account to pay the amounts due on her personal AmEx bank accounts directly from the law firm’s operating account. Ms. Daly was allegedly able to conceal the embezzlement scheme from June 2019 until October 2021.
Having control over the firm’s operating accounts allowed Ms. Daly to allegedly embezzle $1,289,085.00 of the law firm’s funds. Direct payments to Ms. Daly’s bank accounts should have raised red flags, as this was a payment from the operations account that would not be seen an operating expense. This could confirm a failure of internal controls and confirm Ms. Daly was able to initiate payments without oversight and, at times, without even having to conceal unauthorized direct payments to personal bank accounts.
Photo by Tim Douglas
