Criminal Justice
Former Law Firm Manager Gets 8 Years for Stealing $884K; $47K Spent on Lunch Club Meals with Mom
A longtime officer manager with Kelly Olson Michod DeHaan & Richter has been sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing over $884,000 from the law firm, according to the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.
Joan Sanchez, 53, pleaded guilty to a felony theft count. She wrote 176 checks between 2002 and 2009 that put $836,500 into her personal bank account, and used another 58 checks that totaled $47,799 to cover lunches with her mother at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange lunch club, a prosecutor said earlier.
A trusted employee who had worked for the downtown Chicago firm for 24 years and been its office manager for 21, Sanchez reportedly was found out when a $40 reimbursement check bounced while she was on vacation in Hawaii.
