A Waukon woman who embezzled over $200,000 from her employer was sentenced Feb. 1, to nine months in federal prison. Heather Leigh Migliore, 52, received the prison term after a July 19, 2023, guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
According to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office, in a plea agreement, Migliore admitted that, between 2015 and 2021, she was the office manager of a tax preparation business that had offices in Waukon and Decorah. Migliore wrote over 600 fraudulent checks for her own benefit from the business’s checking accounts without her employer’s knowledge or permission. Migliore also used one of the business’s credit cards to make over 200 fraudulent charges. The owner of the business had to use a home equity line of credit to pay the company’s bills during this timeframe, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
In early 2021, Migliore also made false statements to the State of Iowa to obtain approximately $900 in federally-funded COVID-19 unemployment benefits, the United States Attorney’s Office press release added.
Migliore was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Migliore was sentenced to nine months in prison, was ordered to make $229,351 in restitution, and she must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after prison. There is no parole in the federal system.
Migliore was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date to be determined. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office.
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