MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Nichole Genz, 41, Evansville, Wisconsin, was sentenced Friday June 24 by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 30 months in federal prison for wire fraud. Judge Peterson also ordered Genz to pay restitution in the amount of $216,561.85. Genz pleaded guilty to the charge on December 3, 2021.
Genz pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud from 2013 to 2018 as part of a scheme to defraud her employer Park Towne Development Corporation (PTD). PTD had various subsidiary entities, including a daycare center called Learning Gardens Child Development Center. Genz worked as the Executive Director at Learning Gardens from September 3, 2013 until October 2, 2018, when she was fired.
Genz and the PTD Accounting Manager participated in a scheme to defraud the company through various methods of embezzlement, which included: (1) diverting Learning Gardens tuition checks into the Learning Gardens petty cash account; (2) cashing altered checks by diverting them to the Learning Gardens petty cash account; (3) creating false bank statements for the Learning Gardens petty cash bank statement that hid the check diversions; and (4) misuse of the company credit card and debit cards for personal purchases. Genz submitted monthly expense reports that falsely coded her personal expenditures as Learning Gardens business expenses, and she attached receipts to the expense reports with handwritten notations falsely indicating the purchases were for Learning Gardens.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, which involved the taking of evidence and lasted over 7 hours, Judge Peterson noted that while the PTD Accounting Manager—who is now deceased—was the primary embezzler in the tuition check diversion part of the fraud scheme, Genz was aware of it and helped cover it up. The judge explained that the PTD Accounting Manager and Genz working together inflicted more harm to the victim company, and made it a more serious crime, than had it been just one person engaged in the scheme. Judge Peterson also told Genz that he did not think she had made a sincere and forthright effort to accept responsibility for her conduct, and that her slow efforts to come to terms with her actions, worried him about her future prospects for not reoffending.
In imposing the 30-month prison sentence, Judge Peterson told Genz he needed to impose such a sentence for specific deterrence – to deter her from future criminal conduct, as well as for general deterrence to the public – that tells future offenders who embezzle from their employers that they will face prison time.
The charges against Genz are the result of an investigation conducted by the Madison Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Graber is handling the prosecution.