Real Estate Paralegal Gets 24 Months For Siphoning $440K Out Of Law Firm's Closing Escrow Account For Her Personal Use, Then Failed To Report Pilfered Proceeds As Income On Her Federal Tax Returns

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Wilmington, Delaware):

• [P]enni Enama, age 50, of Lewes, Delaware, was sentenced [...] to 24 months in prison, and full restitution. The defendant pleaded guilty to violations of wire fraud and tax evasion, in December 2015.
  
  According to court filings and statements made at the sentencing hearing, the defendant was employed by a law firm in Delaware. In May 2007, she began embezzling funds from the firm’s escrow account. The defendant was a real estate paralegal, and she used her access to a closing escrow account to divert at least $439,824.40 to her personal use. The defendant fabricated additional real estate closing parties in the firm’s records, and she used the additional funds to pay her personal credit cards and/or deposit the funds into her personal bank accounts. The defendant did not declare the embezzled funds on her federal income tax returns for the 2011-2013 tax years.
  
  Judge [Gregory M.] Sleet commented that the defendant’s conduct was “quite involved, quite calculated, and disturbingly so.”
  
  U.S. Attorney [Charles M. Oberly, III] stated, “In yet another case involving a major breach of trust, Ms. Enama stole substantial funds from her employer, causing injury to both the law firm and its attorneys. While Ms. Enama was, until caught, living a dream life with stolen funds, she will now dream for the next two years that crime does not pay.”

Source: Lewes Woman Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for $430,000+ Embezzlement.