Trial Date Confirmed for Pastry Smart Employee Charged With Embezzlement

A former Pastry Smart employee will go to trial in April in San Mateo County Superior Court on charges shestole  nearly $400,000 from the company over a three-year period.

Gabriela Verdusco, 32, who in October to seven counts of embezzlement for allegedly stealing $387,631.03 from the San Mateo store, had a pretrial conference Monday in which no disposition was reached, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

Her defense attorney requested another conference, which was granted and set for April 9. Her case remains scheduled for jury trial on April 23.

Verdusco is out of custody on her own, supervised recognizance.

She was hired by Pastry Smart in 2008, and was a "trusted" bookkeeper for the company who was authorized to sign checks on behalf of Pastry Smart, according to prosecutors.

In April 2011, the Pastry Smart president looked at the financial records and noticed a number of "questionable payments and checks" that were made out to Verdusco, prosecutors said.

The business then hired an accountant to audit the financial records back to 2008, who discovered Verdusco had embezzled the more than $380,000, according to prosecutors.

Verdusco had apparently been able to steal the money my making false entries in accounting records to show payments to legitimate vendors, but was actually making the checks out to herself, prosecutors said.

Authorities believe Verdusco stole the money to cover extensive financial debts.

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