INDIANAPOLIS — A Shelbyville woman has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to four counts of wire fraud, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday.
According to court documents, 52-year-old Tammy J. Scudder schemed to defraud her employer of more than $600,000 between 2012 and 2021. Scudder served as the controller for Plymate, located in Shelbyville, Indiana. She maintained its accounting ledgers, managed payroll and had access to online bank accounts.
She could also write checks in the company's name.
Scudder used the company’s group health plan bank account to generate 154 company checks to herself using another employee’s signature stamp. After Scudder printed the checks, she concealed the theft by altering and falsifying the company’s accounting records.
Scudder used the stolen money to pay for vacations, personal debts, her children’s educational expenses and improvements to her Shelbyville home.
“The defendant abused her position of trust and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to pay for the health care of her colleagues,” U.S. attorney Zachary A. Myers said. “This incessant greed, spanning nearly a decade, has been quashed, thanks to our dedicated partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Scudder was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who ordered that Scudder be on supervised probation for two additional years following her release from federal prison.
She also has to pay the full $693,708 in restitution to Plymate.
