Crime & Safety
Woman Sentenced To 7+ Years For Embezzling $1 Million From Menlo Park Employer
The 40-year-old, arrested in 2015 at a Redwood City job, also is ordered to pay back nearly $730K to the Menlo Park landscaping firm.
SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA -- A 40-year-old San Mateo woman was sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison and ordered to pay back $728,888 after being convicted of embezzling more than $1 million from a Menlo Park landscaping firm, San Mateo County prosecutors said today.
Shannon Cardenas stole the money from Creekside Landscaping, which employed her as an office manager from March 2013 to March 2015. The theft came to light when Cardenas abruptly resigned from the company in March 2015, according to the district attorney's office.
She was arrested where she was working in Redwood City after police obtained a warrant for her arrest and to search her home.
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Cardenas issued company checks to herself for overtime she did not work and for bonuses she used to pay rent, prosecutors said.
Cardenas also used company credit cards to buy herself trips, vehicles and other items. District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the company lost its medical insurance because Cardenas was stealing the insurance premiums. Managers had to lay off workers who had been with the company for 15 years.
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Wagstaffe said Cardenas lied to her co-workers about her father dying from cancer and her co-workers supported her when she cried.
"It was a betrayal," Wagstaffe said. Cardenas was making $72,000 a year with the firm, according to prosecutors.
Wagstaffe said the sentencing was emotional. Cardenas told the judge she will pay back every dollar she took, he said.
In April, Cardenas pleaded no contest to felony embezzlement and felony identity theft and admitted an enhancement for theft of more than $150,000 on the condition that she serve no more than seven years and eight months in prison.
She remains in custody on $500,000 bail.
A call to her attorney Jeffrey Boyarsky was not immediately returned.
Also see:
- Ex-Stanford Swimmer's 'Lenient' 6-Month Sentence To Be Cut In Half?
- Peninsula Man Found Guilty Of Bludgeoning Friend To Death With Hammer, Knife In 2012
--Bay City News/File photo