INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis woman has been charged with stealing more than $300,000 from her employer.
Chloe Brown is facing felony theft charges for allegedly stealing the money from Cochran Exteriors over four years from 2018 through 2021. The owners of the company told police the alleged embezzlement was uncovered as Cochran Exteriors was in the process of being sold.
According to court documents, Brown was the company's financial administrator and was the only person with a password to the business' payroll software. She would allegedly print out the company's payroll data for the week, then after management approved the payroll, Brown would go back into the software and add unapproved bonuses, expenses and reimbursements.
"These overpayments were sometimes paid weekly instead of her bi-weekly pay schedule and other times she would double pay herself in the same week in addition to bonuses and reimbursements," the probable cause affidavit read.
Documents showed Brown legitimately earned between $61,000 and $76,600 each year from 2018 to 2021, but paid out between $86,200 and $197,300 to herself during those years. In all, her unearned income was estimated at around $322,500.
A review of her bank account closely matched the sums she received, investigators said.
Brown resigned in November 2021 after management confronted her about the theft. In an email, Brown said she had "been asked to do things for the company that I don't feel comfortable doing during my employment and for the sale." She said that included changing payroll information and discussing other employees' pay and making changes to their bonuses without their knowledge.
Owner Ross Cochran told police the company had not uncovered anything abnormal in the payroll records of other employees.