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An Indianapolis woman has agreed to pay over $1 million in restitution after using her boss’s financial accounts to pay for her own personal expenses.
Kimberly Johnson, who served as a personal assistant to an unidentified victim in Indianapolis, was charged with one count of wire fraud and has accepted a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
In exchange for Johnson’s guilty plea, the government has agreed not to bring other federal charges against Johnson based on the case’s current information and has recommended that the court lower the offense level.
Wire fraud is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Woods, who prosecuted the case, did not provide a statement. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in an email that assistant U.S. attorneys do not comment on matters outside of the court. Attempts to reach an attorney listed as representing Johnson were unsuccessful.
According to court documents, from around February 2010 to April 2024, Johnson served as the victim’s personal assistant. Johnson was responsible for paying the victim’s credit card bills and updating them weekly on their financial balances.
Johnson had access to the victim’s credit card and bank accounts and the usernames and passwords for those accounts.
According to the plea agreement, beginning around June 2018, Johnson began transferring funds from the victim’s various financial accounts to her own. Johnson initiated electronic fund payments from the victim’s PNC Bank checking account to pay for various personal expenses on her credit card accounts, including alcohol, video games, Starbucks, streaming services and food delivery.
Johnson made these payments without the victim’s knowledge, consent, or authorization and the expenses were unrelated to the victim, according to the plea agreement. To hide the money transfers, Johnson falsely told the victim in weekly email reports that the victim’s credit card did not have a balance.
Johnson also allegedly wrote checks to herself from the victim’s PNC checking account, signing them as the victim, for her personal expenses. Johnson would sometimes write in the memo line that the checks were for legitimate purposes, such as cash for the victim or “cash to house.”
In the end, Johnson cleared about 99 electronic money transfers and 30 checks, totaling about $1,038,726.64.
According to the plea agreement, Johnson has accepted responsibility for her criminal conduct.
Although the plea agreement does not restrict the court’s sentencing discretion, the government recommends that the court decrease Johnson’s offense level, provided she continues to satisfy certain pre-trial requirements.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Tim Baker has scheduled an initial hearing for March 10.
The case is United States of America v. Kimberly A. Johnson (1:26-cr-00040-JRO-MKK).
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