Hattiesburg Woman Charged with Wire Fraud Related to Employee Theft
Published 12:43 pm Sunday, April 18, 2021
NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that CHRISTY BARTHOLOMEW, age 39, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was charged on April 14, 2021 in a two-count Bill of Information with wire fraud.
According to court records, BARTHOLOMEW was employed as a financial controller for a business located in Slidell, Louisiana, and later worked as an office manager for a company located in Kenner, Louisiana. From 2016 to October of 2019, she embezzled approximately $357,000 from her Slidell employer by several schemes, including unauthorized use of a company credit card. She later did the same thing with her Kenner employer, embezzling approximately $300,000 from November 2019 to February 2020.
BARTHOLOMEW faces a sentence of up to twenty years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines, and up to three years of supervised release. There is also a $100 mandatory special assessment due after conviction.
U.S. Attorney Evans reiterated that a bill of information is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations, along with assistance from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, in investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward J. Rivera is in charge of the prosecution.
