Gilroy
– Police arrested a 29-year-old Gilroy woman Thursday, who is
accused of accessing her employer’s bank accounts to embezzle more
than $1.6 million over a four-year period.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Police arrested a 29-year-old Gilroy woman Thursday, who is accused of accessing her employer’s bank accounts to embezzle more than $1.6 million over a four-year period.
Michelle Marie Martinez, whose last known address was 8790 Floral St., bought a home in Gilroy, a BMW sedan, and round-trip airline tickets to the Bahamas for 12 family members with the money she stole, according to court records.
She was scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon on six felony charges, including five counts of grand theft and one count of identity theft, and remained in custody with bail set at $2 million.
Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman of the Major Fraud Unit said Friday that Martinez worked as an assistant at Psi Development Co. in San Jose, where she was privy to her employer’s bank account information, both corporate and personal.
“She had access to the information because as part of her job, she reconciled accounts on his behalf,” Lohman said. “He wouldn’t have (noticed) because she was … giving him the information he wanted to know, and concealing the status of the accounts.”
Martinez used the name and social security number of her employer’s wife to obtain a second debit card and access to the couple’s American Express account, Lohman said.
Martinez left the company on maternity leave in February, but the unauthorized use of the victim’s checking and credit accounts did not come to light until early April, when her employer’s American Express account was overdrawn – the result of an unauthorized automatic debit payment, Lohman said.
If convicted, Martinez could face more than 13 years in state prison, and be required to pay restitution.
