A Houston woman will be sentenced later this year after pleading guilty in a mail fraud scheme involving funds belonging to her father, federal officials said late last week.
Beth Phillips, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said Shirley Ann Scheets, 49, entered the plea last Thursday morning before U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr to a charge contained in an April 1, 2009, federal indictment.
Scheets admitted in court the loss attributable to her stands at about $31,000. Federal officials said Friday they plan to show that the Houston woman’s conduct resulted in embezzling funds far much more than that from accounts. Under a plea agreement signed between Scheets and the U.S. attorney’s office, the prosecutor’s office can highlight “relevant conduct” attributed to Scheets in determining her sentence.
Under federal guidelines, Don Ledford with the U.S. attorney’s office says Scheets’ sentencing could run eight to 14 months or as long as 30 to 37 months, if the government convinces a judge of the magnitude of the alleged crime. In the end, Dorr will have the final say. Scheets also faces a fine of up to $250,000, an order of restitution to her father and supervised release for three years.
A press release issued by the U.S. attorney last week irked Scheets’ supporters – many of them attending the hearing – who noted that she had not pleaded guilty to the embezzlement of funds from her father’s dental practice. In the press release, Phillips said that Scheets embezzled as much as $200,000 from business bank accounts.
According to the press release, Scheets was employed as the office manager and dental assistant for her father, Dr. Glen Schuster, at his dental practice on South Sam Houston Blvd. As the office manager, Scheets handled Schuster’s finances, including the accounts payable and receivable for both the dental practice and his horse farm, also located in Houston.
Scheets admitted in court that, posing as Dr. Schuster, she mailed four certificates of deposit belonging to Schuster to Guaranty Bank in Springfield with letters instructing the bank to negotiate or “cash out” the CDs. Scheets drafted the letters to appear as if they had been written by her father; she typed one of the letters on Dr. Schuster’s professional letterhead, and forged Dr. Schuster’s name on the signature line of both letters, all without his knowledge or permission. The bank was instructed to deduct taxes and penalties as a result of negotiating the CDs prematurely, then send the proceeds to Schuster’s dental office.
The bank mailed four separate checks – totaling $31,119 – to Schuster’s dental office. Scheets intercepted the checks, forged Schuster’s signature on the back of each check and deposited them into one of Schuster’s business bank accounts.
Scheets admitted that she then withdrew funds from the accounts to which she was not entitled.
The government believes Scheets stole more than $200,000 from Schuster’s business accounts; the exact amount of funds is disputed and will be decided by the court at Scheets’ sentencing hearing, where federal officials say the questions of “relevant conduct” will be addressed. “The court must order restitution to be paid to the victim of the offense to which is pleading guilty, the conduct charged in any dismissed counts of the indictment and all other uncharged related criminal activity,” according to the plea agreement.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robyn L. McKee. It was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General.
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.