According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, the former office manager for an Augusta medical practice has been sentenced after admitting she stole more than half a million dollars from the business.
Shirley Ann Taylor, 65, of Gibson, Ga., was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to an Information charging her with nine counts of Wire Fraud, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall also ordered Taylor to pay $1,163,091.68 in restitution, and to serve three years of supervised release after completion of her prison term.
There is no parole in the federal system.
“Shirley Ann Taylor violated the trust of her employer and fellow employees to enrich herself at the company’s expense,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Estes. “Thanks to the vigilance of a fellow employee, she’s now being held accountable for her thefts.”
As described in court documents and testimony, Taylor was employed at an Augusta medical practice from 2006 to 2020 as the office and payroll manager. The year after she was hired, Taylor began stealing from her employer by inflating her own pay and writing unauthorized company checks which she deposited in her own account or used to pay her mortgage.
The company in 2020 hired a new office manager who quickly noted accounting discrepancies amounting to nearly $1.2 million. In her guilty plea, Taylor accepted responsibility for stealing a minimum of $550,000 from the company.
“Taylor threw away an important position in a company that entrusted her by stealing money she didn’t deserve,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “Now she is being held accountable for her actions, thanks the cooperative efforts from the company and our law enforcement partners.”
The case was investigated by the FBI and the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia G. Rhodes.
