LOS ANGELES
Officials stated that a jury found a woman guilty of defrauding a Beverly Hills-based independent publishing company and its owner by embezzling at least $1.3 million from the business and the owner’s personal bank account.
The crimes occurred over a period of years for her own personal expenses, including spa visits, veterinary bills, and designer handbags.
Kimberly Ann Miletta, 51, of Ventura, was found guilty late Monday of three counts of wire fraud.
According to evidence presented at a five-day trial, from 2009 to 2018, Miletta was president of Phoenix Books, an independent book and audio publisher owned by a victim identified in court documents as “J.O.”
As president of Phoenix Books, Miletta had full control over the business, including its finances, but she was authorized to use company funds only to pay for legitimate business expenses.
From October 2013 to January 2018, Miletta embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars by using the company credit card—over which she had exclusive control—to pay for personal items and then paying the credit card bills out of the company’s owner’s personal bank account.
Miletta used the company credit card to pay for, among other things, personal spa treatments, designer handbags, high-end clothing, a multi-thousand-dollar mattress, and years’ worth of veterinary bills and pet products for her cats.
Miletta fraudulently charged more than $185,000 worth of purchases at clothing and department stores to the company credit card.
Miletta also made a fraudulent wire transfer out of the personal account of the company’s owner of nearly $1 million, which Miletta used to buy an ocean-view home in Ventura.
The jury found Miletta not guilty of two additional counts of wire fraud.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong scheduled a Jan. 10. sentencing hearing. Miletta faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each count.
The FBI investigated this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jenna G. Williams of the Corporate and Securities Fraud Strike Force and Declan T. Conroy of the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section are prosecuting this case.