Legal Secretary Accused of Embezzling $830K From Retired Partner Gets 3 Years in Federal Prison
Assigned by an unidentified Atlanta law firm to help a retired partner pay personal bills, a Georgia legal secretary took the opportunity to use his funds to cover $830,000 of her own expenses, authorities say.
After pleading guilty earlier this year to one count of mail fraud, Francine Fonger, 50, was sentenced Friday to three years and a month in prison. She was also ordered to pay $ $832,890.35 in restitution to the estate of the now-deceased victim, who is not named, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Marietta Daily Journal.
Authorities say Fonger’s embezzlement scheme lasted from at least 1999 to the end of 2010.
“This was an extraordinary long-running fraud by an employee of a respected law firm,” said Mark F. Giuliano in an FBI news release. He is special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta office.
The articles don’t include any comment from the defendant or her counsel.
