NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia Beach woman was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for two counts of wire fraud in several schemes resulting in over a million dollars in losses.
45-year-old Maria Gene Reich was president of a Virginia Beach-based business which offered bookkeeping, accounting and payroll services to small business clients. Beginning in February 2012, Reich helped with bookkeeping for a family-owned company. Reich was responsible for helping schedule and prepare checks to pay the company’s bills.
Based on the agreement between Reich and the company, the maximum total compensation she should have received for services rendered to the company between January 2015 and December 2018 was $98,400.
However, Reich sent herself payments totaling $596,418 from the company’s accounts, including 138 checks and 132 electronic payments. The financial analysis showed that Reich made 366 payments totaling approximately $629,265 to her Capital One personal and business credit card accounts using funds from the company’s business bank accounts.
In total, Reich stole approximately $1,132,693 from the company.
In March 2020, Reich applied to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for a $150,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and requested a $150,000 loan.
In April 2021, Reich applied for a modification of the EIDL loan to increase the amount that Reich sent a large portion to her personal accounts.
In addition to a down payment for a house, Reich used the EIDL funds to put money into her minor children’s bank accounts and to make payments for her mortgages, credit cards, personal loan and life insurance policy.
In total, Reich illegally spent $249,102 of the EIDL funds she received.
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