A woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court for embezzling $823,714 from her Tulsa employer. Leslie Michelle Clark, 53, of Tulsa, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud.
“Leslie Clark exploited her position of trust to personally pocket more than $800,000 of ill-gotten gains,” said U.S. Attorney Trent Shores. “She created a fake consulting company and issued fraudulent billing invoices as part of her criminal scheme. Our white collar prosecution team is to be commended for their excellent work on this case.”
Clark was hired as a financial controller at a Tulsa company in 2014. As controller, she supervised all financial matters for the company.
In July 2018, Clark created a fictitious consulting company called “Alliance Consulting.” She also opened an account at Arvest Bank for the fictitious company and caused checks to be paid from her employers customer account at Wells Fargo to Alliance Consulting for fabricated services never rendered.
Clark falsely and fraudulently told colleagues at the company that the payments were for consulting services and presented false and fraudulent invoices from Alliance Consulting in support of her scheme.
As part of her plea agreement, Clark agreed to pay $823, 714 in restitution. U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell will make the final restitution determination at her sentencing hearing set for Sept. 16, 2020.
The FBI conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard M. Cella is prosecuting the case.
