Woman arrested after allegedly stealing $13,200 from company she worked for
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IDAHO FALLS — A 25-year-old Idaho Falls woman is facing charges after allegedly forging checks and stealing money from a company she worked for.
Ashlynn Lee Richardson is being charged with two counts of grand theft.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by the Idaho Falls Police Department, the owner of a heating and air conditioning business told police that Richardson fraudulently forged multiple business checks to herself.
On Feb. 15, a detective met with the owner to conduct a follow-up interview. The owner advised that his accountant had discovered several forged checks amounting to $13,200.
He identified the employee as Richardson. Her position with the company was as an administrative assistant, where she had access to the business checks and had authority to write business checks to vendors but not to herself, documents said.
The owner explained to law enforcement that he is the only person authorized to sign checks for the business and required Richardson to keep receipts for any purchases and payments to suppliers. She additionally had company credit cards available to her to pay vendors and purchase needed supplies.
He said that until the forged checks were discovered, Richardson had followed procedures and entered legitimate payments into their bookkeeping program and attached appropriate receipts for each purchase she made for the business with company funds.
She did not mention or ask for authorization for the multiple checks she had written to herself between December 2022 and early February of this year. She forged his signature when she wrote the unauthorized checks to herself, the owner said, according to police.
Nine checks were provided for documentation to law enforcement, which amounted to $13,200.
He told law enforcement he confronted Richardson when he discovered the forged checks.
She admitted to writing the checks to herself but claimed she had done this on one occasion so she could be paid early and on another occasion to reimburse herself for office supplies and building materials that she had purchased with her own money, documents said.
The owner said it was implausible that she had paid for the supplies herself because the forged checks were all even rounded dollar amounts in the hundreds or thousands. Richardson was asked for the receipts to validate her claim of reimbursement but could not provide them, court documents said.
A detective interviewed her, and she admitted she wrote and cashed the checks in question but intended to repay the money when she could. She denied that she intentionally stole the money.
Richardson maintained she wrote the checks for reimbursement of business supplies, but said she could not provide a plausible explanation for why she would “secretly” pay out of her own pocket for business materials multiple times for months and require reimbursement but never mention it to her employer, court documents said.
Richardson was booked in the Bonneville County Jail. During her initial court appearance on Thursday, she was given a $25,000 bail and ordered to pretrial services after posting bond.
Richardson is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 5 at 1 p.m. at the Bonneville County courthouse.
Each grand theft charge is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, a $5,000 fine and restitution.
Though Richardson has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean she committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.