Fort Wayne Public Television Accountant Admits Guilt In More Than $130,000 Embezzlement Case

Late last month, a federal grand jury indicted Gail Waymire, a former accountant for Fort Wayne's public television station, WFWA,  on twenty counts of wire fraud related to a sophisticated scheme she developed to embezzle more than $130,000 from the nonprofit over a three-year period. Yesterday, she agreed to plead guilty to just one of those charges according to the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. In exchange for her plea agreement, federal prosecutors will recommend a lower sentence for her. Wire fraud charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years under federal law.

According to the original indictment, Waymire created phony invoices for a company that she set up in order to transfer money into bank accounts she controlled. She also inflated payroll figures for other employees of the TV station and arranged to have the differences transferred into her account. The Journal-Gazette reported the wire transfer payments ranged in size from $100 to $17,890. WFWA hired Waymire in 2009, and she began stealing from the station in 2010, which continued until her employment was terminated last year.