Virginia Accountant Sentenced For Wire Fraud Stemming From Embezzlement Ploy

By Stacy Parker
The Virginian-Pilot
(TNS)

VIRGINIA BEACH — An accountant who pleaded guilty of stealing more than a $1 million from a local condiment company for personal travel and entertainment and misusing pandemic relief funds has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Maria Reich, 45, was sentenced for two counts of wire fraud Thursday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. The terms of imprisonment for each count will be served concurrently beginning Sept. 26.

Reich, who operated On Call Accountants, pleaded guilty in the same court April 12 to eight counts of wire fraud as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. She had remained free on bond while awaiting sentencing.

The crime carried a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Six of the eight wire fraud counts were dismissed Friday. Reich was ordered to pay $1.3 million in restitution, according to the judgment document.

On Call Accountants is a Virginia Beach-based business that offered bookkeeping, accounting and payroll services to small business clients.

As part of her job, Reich possessed a stamp bearing the signature of the client’s owner, which she used to prepare checks. She also had online access to the company’s financial accounts, which allowed her to view transfer funds and make electronic payments, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which prosecuted the case.

Reich should have received roughly $100,000 for her services between January 2015 and December 2018, but her accounting business actually received $600,000, the release said. She also used the client’s money to pay off her credit cards, which she used for numerous personal expenses including dining, travel, entertainment and retail purchases.

In 2018, the wife of the condiment company’s owner discovered patterns of suspicious outgoing payments, according to the statement of facts.

In total, Reich stole $1.1 million from her client, according to prosecutors.

In another scheme, prosecutors said Reich used pandemic relief funds provided by the federal government for her accounting business to make a down payment on a house.

In 2021, Reich, on behalf of her accounting firm, received a COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan, or EIDL, totaling $500,000. The funding was provided by the Small Business Administration to help companies recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the EIDL application, Reich certified that none of the funds would be used for non-business expenses, according to the release.

She used more than $93,000 of the EIDL for a down payment on a residence and tens of thousands of dollars more for mortgage, car and credit card payments as well as home improvements. She also made a $5,000 deposit into her child’s savings account, according to the statement. In total, Reich illegally spent nearly $250,000 of the pandemic loan on personal expenses.

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