Woman sentenced for stealing from Nixa employer

An Ash Grove woman was sentenced yesterday to time in prison for stealing from her Nixa employer.

Carla Jean Wilson, 54, was sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison without parole and ordered to pay $611,000 in restitution, according to a news release from the office of the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Wilson had served as office manager for Kitchenland USA Inc. from August 2004 until her termination on Sept. 20, 2010.

In April, she pled guilty to embezzling funds from her employer between Jan. 19, 2007, and her termination date. During the time frame of the scheme, Wilson admitted she stole money from the business by taking signed bank checks drawn on Kitchenland's bank account and making them payable to herself. Through the scheme, Wilson stole $479,803, the release said.

Because she didn't report the embezzled funds on federal tax returns filed 2007-10, Wilson also underreported her income to the Internal Revenue Service. Wilson pleaded guilty to failing to report roughly $223,776 in stolen income on her 2009 federal tax return.

Wilson was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr. The case was prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Oliver, and it was investigated by the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation.