An employee of a law firm in Texas has been dealt a prison sentence of over four years for embezzling nearly $1.5 million, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr handed down a 50-month sentence to Christiane Kathleen Irwin, 44, as well as ordering her to pay $1,483,008.56 in restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Having been indicted in March 2022, Ms. Irwin pled guilty in August 2023 to one count of wire fraud. She was responsible for managing the law firm's weekly payroll where she falsely inflated her salary, according to court documents. While drawing an annual salary of approximately $140,000, not including bonuses sometimes up to $50,000, the inflated paychecks by her fraudulent scheme transferred from 2019 to 2021 into her account every two weeks.
Throughout her scheme's three-year duration, Ms. Irwin used the ill-gotten funds to fund a more lavish lifestyle, which included buying a luxury car and taking multiple vacations. The FBI’s Dallas Field Office investigated the case, with the prosecution team comprising Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nashonme Johnson and Jenna Rudoff, and with support from Financial Auditor Sheila Powell.
