Lawyer says Fort Mill IT exec ‘betrayed’ company, stole $2.4M in computers
A former information technology executive from Fort Mill will spend the next three years in federal prison after she stole more than $2.4 million in equipment from her employer over more than a decade.
Jolynn Denise McHone, 45, was sentenced Thursday afternoon in federal court in Charlotte for embezzlement, court documents show.
McHone worked from home in York County as the procurement manager for a national business based in Daytona, Fla. The company has a subsidiary in Concord, N.C., northeast of Charlotte. Court documents do not disclose the name of the business.
In the case, prosecutors alleged McHone ordered computers then grabbed the deliveries before the merchandise made it to the company, court documents show.
The company’s lawyer sent a letter to the judge before Thursday’s sentencing that blasted McHone as a schemer who used “insidious” methods to steal millions for “personal extravagances.”
The white-collar crime went unnoticed for years as McHone plundered the company’s coffers, the lawyer said.
McHone was so “trusted and well-liked” by the company that she was allowed to work remotely from her home in South Carolina, the lawyer said in the letter. The company’s lawyer said McHone “betrayed” the company and her co-workers.
More, the lawyer said in the letter to the judge, McHone exposed dozens of other employees to a months-long investigation until the FBI determined why company purchases were missing.
She sold the computers for cash, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI said in court documents.
McHone pleaded guilty to wire fraud in April and said only “I’m sorry” in court when admitting her guilt, according to court testimony. McHone also has to pay the $2.4 back in restitution, the judge ordered.
