Former NC CEO sentenced to prison for embezzling $15M for her ‘extravagant lifestyle’
The former CEO of a North Carolina manufacturer was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison for embezzling over $15 million to fund her “extravagant lifestyle,” prosecutors said.
Donna Osowitt Steele, 53, of Taylorsville, made $500,000 in jewelry purchases and stayed at pricey New York and Hawaii hotels with money she stole from Tigra USA Inc. in Hickory, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
Steele also admitted to illegally spending $1 million on travel, $200,000 on family weddings, $100,000 on flowers and $100,000 on Gucci purchases, according to documents in U.S. District Court in Statesville.
In January, Steele pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with the scheme. She previously declined comment when reached by the Observer.
After Steele’s guilty plea, Bernd Motzer, CEO and president of Tigra USA Inc., told the Observer that he was “gratified that justice is being done.“
Steele worked at the company for over two decades, from 1999 until she was fired in 2020, court records show. She was made CEO around 2015.
Tigra makes equipment for the metalworking and woodworking industries.
How the scheme unfolded
Steele used four types of financial transactions to pull off what prosecutors alleged in court documents was an “embezzlement scheme”: personal purchases on company credit cards; checks; Quickbooks transactions; and wire transfers.
She opened bank accounts and credit cards in the name of her unsuspecting company and limited communication between employees and the company owners, prosecutors said in court papers.
Steele also told employees that “the owners were to be feared and they should be scared to communicate with them and/or should be careful around them,” according to a court filing.
And Steele used her position to respond to credit card companies when they flagged questionable purchases, according to court documents. “Yes these are okay and approved — thank you!” she’d reply, court records show.
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Impact on vendors, employees
Because of Steele’s actions, prosecutors said, vendors withheld products from the company due to late or nonpayment, and customers complained about being placed on credit holds despite paying what they owed on time.
Employees weren’t paid on time, had their insurance canceled “without warning” and saw their company cards declined when they made legitimate purchases, according to court records.
FBI investigated
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Bell also ordered Steele to serve under three years of court supervision after her release from prison and pay nearly $17.2 million in restitution, U.S. Attorney Dena King’s office said in a news release.
King thanked the FBI for investigating the case.
This story was originally published November 5, 2022 at 8:33 AM with the headline "Former NC CEO sentenced to prison for embezzling $15M for her ‘extravagant lifestyle’."