45°
WESTPORT, Conn. – Westport resident Soozi Folsom was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for stealing more than $1.3 million from charitable foundations and $500,000 from her employer, acting U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly of the District of Connecticut announced.
Folsom, who worked as the financial manager for a Westport-based accounting and law firm that had been hired by three charitable foundations, pleaded guilty to the charges against her last September.
Between September 2008 and November 2011, Folsom issued at least 124 fraudulent checks from the foundations’ bank accounts to “Groundhog LLC,” an entity she controlled, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. She forged the checks by signing the name of someone who had signatory authority on the foundations’ accounts, and later used the money for her own personal use.
Folsom concealed the fraud by manipulating transactions in the accounting software systems that handled the foundations’ accounting and bookkeeping, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Folsom stolea total of $1,385,159 from the foundations. The investigation into the fraud also revealed that she had embezzled approximately $500,000 from her employer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
Folsom was sentenced Thursday in Hartford by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant. Her 46-month prison sentence will be followed by five years of supervised release.
Folsom was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,836,973.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Westport and receive free news updates.
