Sisters spend over $844K on FL company credit cards in yearslong scheme, feds say
A federal judge sentenced two sisters from Northwest Florida to prison over a yearslong embezzlement scheme in which they stole more than $844,000 from their employer using company credit cards, prosecutors said.
As an office manager for a locally owned Pensacola business, Kimberly Lovitt and her sister, Amy Williams, the company's receptionist, were allowed to use the company's credit cards to buy office supplies, according to court documents.
But from early 2016 through 2021, the sisters charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses to the cards, court documents say.
Now Lovitt, 52, of Pace, has been sentenced to three years in prison, and Williams, 46, of Milton, has been sentenced to one year and six months in prison on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida said in a May 23 news release.
Pace and Milton are located in Santa Rosa County, about a 40-mile drive northeast from Pensacola.
Lovitt and Williams previously pleaded guilty in the case, court records show.
Williams' defense attorney, Jack Wilkins, referred McClatchy News on May 27 to the sentencing memorandum he filed on her behalf when contacted for comment.
'Williams has acknowledged her culpability and taken responsibility for her crime and harm she has caused,' Wilkins wrote in the filing, in which he emphasized her 'heartfelt remorse.'
Lovitt's federal public defender, Lauren Cobb, didn't immediately return McClatchy News' request for comment May 27.
While working for the Pensacola business, Lovitt had access to 'accounting records, bank accounts' and the company's credit cards, prosecutors wrote in court filings.
To hide how she and her sister were using the credit cards for personal spending, Lovitt faked business documents, accounting records and lied on her federal income tax returns, prosecutors said.
She never reported the money she's accused of stealing from her employer as income, according to prosecutors.
Acting U.S. Attorney Michelle Spaven said in the news release the sisters' 'years-long theft from their employer and the extreme efforts to conceal their criminal proceeds are both illegal and offensive to all hardworking Americans, especially those who own and operate local businesses.'
'It is fitting and proper that they are not only incarcerated, but that they pay restitution and unpaid taxes for their criminal conduct.'
How much Lovitt and Williams owe in restitution has yet to be determined, as their restitution has been deferred for 90 days, court records show.
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