INDIANAPOLIS — A woman has been charged for allegedly embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from an Indianapolis-based news organzation.
Mindi Madison, 52, of Indianapolis, has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Court documents say Madison began working as an accounting specialist for WFYI Public Media in January 2018. In her role, she had access to WFYI’s accounting software. Part of her job was to present expenses, invoices and claims that arose out of WFYI's business expenses for signature and payment.
Instead of doing this, documents say she's accused of using her position to present at least 156 fake claims and invoices for payment. In an effort to hide the evidence from WFYI and its banking institutions, documents say she worked with a co-conspirator, who was not named and is not an employee or vendor of WFYI.
Madison and the co-conspirator agreed that Madison would falsify invoices using versions of the co-conspirator's name and businesses connected to her.
Madison would tender WFYI checks to the co-conspirator, who agreed to deposit the checks into her bank accounts. Then the co-conspirator would withdraw Madison's portion of cash so they could split the proceeds.
Documents say Madison embezzled about $270,876 from WFYI before she was caught. She and the co-conspirator used the money stolen from WFYI for things like rent, restaurants, groceries, fuel and utilities, among other things.
Madison will appear in federal court on Sept. 15, at 10 a.m.
She faces a maximum sentencing of 20 years in prison. What sentence she receives, if any, will be decided by a federal district court judge.
