Evansville woman sentenced for defrauding her employer of more than $400K

An Evansville woman was sentenced to more than four years prison after defrauding her healthcare staffing agency employer out of over $400,000.

A federal judge sentenced Heather Rene Armstead, 52, the agency’s former chief operations officer, to four years and nine months in prison and three years of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay $245,007 in restitution.

Armstead pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and access device fraud, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.

In 2023, she obtained more than $44,000 by submitting a fraudulent capital advance agreement to Blue Ribbon Funding in which she claimed to be the president of her employer, which provides healthcare staff to senior living homes in Indiana.

She then wired funds to a bank account she previously opened in her employer’s name and used $2,172 to purchase jewelry from Helzberg Diamonds in Evansville, the statement said.

In October, 2023, Armstead directed customers to make payments to that unauthorized bank account. The account had $74,781 in improper payments by the end of 2023.

Armstead “abused her position of trust to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company that relied on her leadership,” said Tom Wheeler, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, in the statement.

Armstead also had a prior federal conviction for aggravated identify theft, wire fraud and mail fraud.