NEWARK, NJ—A former receptionist employed by a medical office in Kearny, New Jersey, admitted on Monday to embezzling more than $446,000 from her former employer, using fraudulent credit cards to obtain more than $200,000 in goods and services and evading taxes on that illegal income, officials announced.
Gwendolyn Muller, 53, formerly of Kearny, pleaded guilty in Newark federal court to one count each of embezzlement, credit card fraud and tax evasion.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From 2007 through 2011, Muller used her position at the medical practice to take cash, and hide more than $446,000 in checks paid by insurance companies to the medical practice for services to patients.
During this same period, Muller also fraudulently obtained 10 credit cards in the name an owner of the medical practice and used those cards to charge more than $218,000 in goods and services—a portion of which Muller paid for with embezzled funds.
Muller also admitted to filing a false tax return to evade the payment of taxes on this illegally obtained income.
The embezzlement and credit card counts each carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, and the tax count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Muller plead and is facing more than 20 years in prison when she is sentenced in February along with hundreds of thousands of fines and must forfeit $556,000, officials said.