An employee in the mortgage department of a Chicago insurance company was able to dupe her employer for five years.
Laura Johnson seemed to be making a pretty good living at Kemper Insurance Cos.
The company said she took home about $1.5 million and bought four houses, including a Tennessee vacation home, cars, motorcycles and more.
But Kemper and the Lake County prosecutor’s office say Johnson took that money home illegally.
Johnson, 47, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she embezzled $1.5 million from Kemper, George Strickland, chief of the Lake County State’s Attorney office told MortgageDaily.com in an interview.
She faces up to 15 years in prison with her trial scheduled to start July 5.
Neither Johnson nor her attorney could be reached to comment.
Johnson worked at Kemper from May 1999 until November 2004, Kemper spokeswoman Linda Kingman said in an e-mail response to questions asked by MortgageDaily.com.
“She was responsible for processing relocation (mortgage) loans for employees who transferred at the company’s request,” Kingman said.
But when payoff checks came she would convert some of them to her own bank accounts, Strickland said.
“It was basically a pyramid scheme,” he said. “She took money and then could cover herself when new checks came in, basically replacing the old checks with new checks.”
Strickland said the scheme allegedly went on for nearly five years.
Yet it was Johnson who eventually turned herself in.
Late last year Johnson was given notice that she would be laid off. The notice was unrelated to the alleged thefts because at that point the missing money had not been detected.
“However,” Kingman said, “she quit before the notice period was up.”
Then in January Johnson, fearing she was going to be caught, turned herself in to Lake County prosecutors and the company, Strickland said.
“She knew that Kemper was selling off some of it holdings and than an audit would be performed,” Strickland said. “So before the audit turned anything up she turned herself in.
“This crime was self-reported,” he said.
Johnson is now in a wheel chair as a result of a motorcycle accident in March, the same month she was indicted by a Lake County Grand Jury.
Kemper has also sued Johnson in an attempt to recover some of the money.
“We are disappointed and angry,” Kingman said. “We led the investigation that resulted in the charges and have filed a civil suit for restitution, which we will vigorously pursue.”
Strickland said Johnson was using the money to fund “a pretty lavish lifestyle.”
