CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Belmont woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling funds from two recent employers, the latest for her after the Department of Justice says she already embezzled from another employer less than a decade ago, with embezzled funds totaling upwards of $1.9 million.
According to a news release Tuesday from the office of Acting U.S. Attorney William T. Stetzer, 41-year-old Liza Buza Hill of Belmont pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making false statements for embezzling more than $570,000 from two companies who recently employed her. But Hill's story begins in 2012, when she was first convicted for a similar scheme.
Hill, who also was known as Lisa Rollins-Hill, was convicted then of federal wire fraud after the DOJ said she stole more than $800,000 from a motorcycle company she worked for in Kings Mountain. She had been ordered to serve a five-month probationary term and three years of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay $807,506.39 in restitution to the company.
However, Stetzer's office says Hill would embezzle again, this time for a company in Charlotte where she worked as a controller. The U.S. Attorney's Office filed fresh charges against her in July 2020, saying she misused her access to the company's financial system from September 2019 through February 2020. She was able to issue 15 company checks to herself, totaling $22,000 while still paying back restitution from her 2012 conviction, and the office says she made false statements to the office's attempts to collect said restitution.
It wouldn't be the end for Hill, according to prosecutors. In June 2021, while her charges for the fraudulent check scheme were still pending, a federal bill of information was also filed against Hill. This time, she was charged with embezzling $550,000 in authorized funds from a development company in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she was employed as a Chief Financial Officer. Prosecutors say her access to the company's financial records enabled her to make unauthorized payments for herself, enabling her to pay for personal expenses such as payments on a BMW vehicle, mortgage payments, a trip to Walt Disney World, and to settle misuse of funds allegations from previous employers.
She remains in federal custody and has not yet been sentenced. The U.S. Attorney's Office says the FBI and Charlotte Mecklenburg police conducted the investigations into her.
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