A former North Carolina CEO is under fire after allegedly embezzling upwards of $15 million from her company.
Michał Chodyra | Getty Images
Donna Osowitt Steele is being accused of stealing money from her family’s business to fund an opulent lifestyle filled with vacations, jewelry, events and more, per documents filed by U.S. Attorney Dena King.
Court documents show that Steele reportedly spent over $1 million on travel, $200,000 on designer purchases and flowers as well as $500,000 on jewelry and “pricey hotel” stays in lavish locations, including the famous Plaza Hotel in New York and the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, Hawaii, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Steele served as CEO of Tigra USA, Inc., which manufactures equipment within the metalwork and woodworking industry.
The current president of the company, Bernd Motzer, said that the company is “gratified that justice is being done.”
Steele allegedly opened bank accounts and cards under the name of her company, while also forcing her employees to give her passwords to “all company systems” and hyper-monitoring them, per documents filed.
When credit companies flagged suspicious purchases that she’d made, she would approve them using her CEO position.
Steele is being charged with wire fraud embezzlement, amid other charges, and faces up to $16.9 million in forfeiture.
For all the latest Business News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
