MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A Marion County woman accused of stealing over $600,000 from a local alternative school was finally sentenced on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In a release, DOJ officials said the woman — Danielle Liles, 41 — was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for wire fraud.
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According to court records, Liles worked for the education nonprofit “Silver River Mentoring & Instruction,” which provides mentoring and education services to at-risk youth in Marion and Citrus counties.
Last year, detectives said they reached out to the nonprofit’s director to discuss a potential organized fraud case involving Liles, who had been the school’s business manager since 2002.
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The director told detectives that Liles had been stealing money from the nonprofit since 2016 and that Liles had admitted to the fraud because of an upcoming financial audit, deputies added.
Investigators learned Liles had arrived at the nonprofit’s Citrus County location just a few days earlier to begin the audit, and during the meeting, she admitted to giving herself extra paychecks since 2016 while providing records as proof, deputies said.
Liles claimed she stole the money because she’d become “addicted to stealing the payroll funds,” DOJ officials announced.
An investigation found that Liles had made 137 fraudulent checks to herself since 2016 — totaling more than $616,000 detectives said.
The checks included either overpayments for her actual wages or entirely separate checks outside of her normal pay, according to the release.
After the investigation came to light, Liles turned herself in, and she ultimately pled guilty to her crime.
On Tuesday, a U.S. district judge ordered Liles to pay back $766,553 as restitution to the school.
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