SC woman goes to prison after stealing $1.7m from Charlotte company started by grandfather
For almost 20 years, Kristin Turney worked as a bookkeeper and in the office at the small Charlotte water treatment company her grandfather started in 1973.
She started in 2004 when her grandfather died, federal prosecutors say. She took over more duties when her grandmother entered a care facility in 2016, they said.
The last seven years she worked at the business — until 2023 — Turney stole more than $1.7 million, prosecutors say. The business had just three employees.
Judge Kenneth Bell sentenced Turney, 54, on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charlotte to more than four years in federal prison for what prosecutors described in court documents a “staggering” theft. She also must pay back the $1.7 million.
She pleaded guilty late last year to wire fraud.
Turney, of York County near Rock Hill, made over 1,000 payments to herself and spent the money shopping using PayPal, on cash withdrawals, tuition payments, travel and mortgage payments, and made more than $1.2 million in personal purchases, according to court documents in the case.
The company was left with $145,000 in tax debt and owed suppliers more than $350,000 after the embezzlement, documents show.
“For a small company with just 3 employees — myself, sales and service manager, and Kristin – these losses are devastating,” the business owner told prosecutors in court filings.
Prosecutors did not name the company Turney worked for, and all references to the business name in court records are redacted.
Broken trust
When Turney’s grandmother died in 2020, the company ownership was left to an employee called “E.W.” in court documents. E.W. had been with the company starting at age 20 in 1973 in sales and installations.
When Turney told E.W that business had slowed in 2022, E.W chose to stop receiving a paycheck and even loaned the company money, documents show.
“Turney simply stole the funds,” prosecutors said of that loan.
As the company did work, Turney took money, prosecutors say.
“When new money would come in from a job, Turney would take approximately two-thirds of those funds for herself,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
The company looked into the problem, and an FBI investigation found Turney concealed years of embezzlement by making false entries in the company books, then putting the money in her own accounts, records show. She also provided false documents to the company’s tax preparer, prosecutors said.
The business rebounded in late 2022 and 2023 and was “booming,” documents show.
Yet Turney still claimed into the middle of 2023 there was no money to pay creditors, according to prosecutors.
“During this time of great revenues, Turney continued to tell E.W. that there was never any money to cover the expenses of the company,” prosecutors said.
“Path to federal prison”
The owner’s son told prosecutors in court documents that Turney “willingly and maliciously stole from the company” and did so “without a shred of remorse.”
Prosecutors said Turney “was a trusted employee who took advantage of the fact that she was the granddaughter of the previous owners.”
Russ Ferguson, the U.S. attorney in North Carolina’s western district, said in a statement Thursday that Turney did not have a lapse in judgment — she just plain stole from people who trusted her.
“It was a prolonged a deliberate pattern that nearly destroyed a small business,” Ferguson said. “Today’s sentence is a reminder that embezzlement is not a shortcut to riches, but a path to federal prison.”
Turney also received a year of federal supervised release after her prison sentence.
Some documents submitted by Turney and her lawyer in the case were sealed. Turney’s lawyer, federal public defender W. Kelly Johnson, declined to comment about the case or sentencing when reached by The Herald on Thursday.
