A 41-year-old Ventura County woman convicted of embezzling more than $750,000 from her employer and using it for lavish vacations, designer handbags and even her cellphone bill was sentenced to four years and four months in state prison, officials announced this week.
Prosecutors say Camarillo resident Neydi Garcia, who also used the aliases Neydi Villegas and Neydi Alargunsoro, was hired in 2016 as a bookkeeper and office manager for multiple businesses owned by the victim.
Over the three years Garcia managed the victim’s personal and business accounts, she stole approximately $750,000, which included unauthorized purchases on her employer’s business credit card, a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office stated.
“Garcia took her family on lavish vacations to Europe, Mexico, Nashville, and Las Vegas. She paid personal cell phone bills, bought jewelry, paid collection agencies, and purchased from high-end retailers including Gucci, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton,” the release noted. “She made unauthorized Automated Clearing House transactions to pay her mortgage and personal credit card bills. Garcia also stole cash from a business owned by the victim.”
The 41-year-old also failed to report the money she stole on her California income taxes.
In Sept. 2018, Garcia also used a co-worker’s personal information and signature to make “false representations” about her creditworthiness to qualify for a home mortgage, prosecutors said.
It wasn’t until 2019 that her employer’s certified public accountant spotted discrepancies in bank deposits handled by the 41-year-old and began looking into the missing money.
Garcia was fired from her job in May 2019 and after an extensive investigation by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Major Fraud Unit was arrested in October 2020.
“Despite having treated the defendant like a family member, the defendant stole from the victim hundreds of times,” Senior DA Howard Wise, who prosecuted the case for Ventura County, said. “It reminds us that even trusted employees can abuse the confidence placed in them.”
Garcia pleaded guilty in May 2023 to seven felony counts of grand theft from her employer, a felony count of identity theft and a felony count of filing a fraudulent tax return.
She also admitted to stealing more than $500,000 and the special allegations that she “took advantage of a position of trust and carried out the crime with planning, sophistication and professionalism,” prosecutors said.
Garcia has paid back $300,000 of the $750,000 in restitution she was ordered to pay.
In addition to her four-year prison sentence, officials ordered the 41-year-old to pay an additional $662,654 to her former employer and $221,530 in restitution, interest and penalties to the California Franchise Tax Board.