The U.S. attorney’s office last week moved to seek forfeiture of $31,119 as part of a plea agreement with a Houston woman.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robyn McKee filed the motion for an order of forfeiture after Shirley A. Scheets entered a Feb. 4 guilty plea to one count of mail fraud contained in an April federal indictment. The money represents the amount she admitted to taking from her father.
Scheets admitted in court that, posing as her father, Dr. Glen 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 the one of Schuster’s business bank accounts.
Scheets admitted that she then withdrew funds from the accounts to which she was not entitled.
Scheets is awaiting a sentencing hearing following an investigation by the U.S. Probation Office. The U.S. attorney’s office said it will show the actual loss to her father is in excess of $200,000.