Woman Addicted to Gambling Steals $1.8M, Goes to Prison

A former office manager for a popular property appraisal firm in San Antonio, Texas, is going to prison after stealing nearly $2 million from her employer to fuel a gambling addiction.

Office Manager Steals from Employer for Years

The case involves a woman identified with the initials J.W., who used to be employed by Valbridge Property Advisors for nearly a decade, as announced by Express News. The woman was responsible for the company’s administration and accounting.

The former Valbridge Property Advisors office manager was also in charge of payroll, including filing tax, wage and other documents with the Social Security Administration and the IRS. However, suffering from a crippling gambling addiction, J.W. abused the trust the company put in her and was able to steal an excess of $1.8 million over her nine years of employment.

The former office manager was employed from 2012 through 2021. During the former office manager’s Monday sentencing, US District Judge Fred Biery, asked the defendant if her gambling addiction has gotten “really bad,” to which the woman responded: “Very, very bad.”

Judge Biery outlined that while employed by Valbridge Property Advisors, the woman stole approximately $24,000 on the first year at the job. The unlawful taking continued year after year, the judge said, outlining that in subsequent years, J.W. stole $280,000 and then $300,000.

Pushed by Addiction Into Theft, the Former Office Manager Was Sentenced to Prison

Previously, the woman pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud. As a part of the former office manager’s guilty plea, six additional charges were dropped. However, she won’t be skipping prison.

On Monday, Judge Biery sentenced J.W. to a total of 51 months in federal prison due to the theft of $1.8 million from her employer. Besides the prison sentence of four years and three months, the former office manager was sentenced to three years of supervised release. Judge Biery also ordered the defendant to repay the money stolen from her former employer.

The property appraisal firm’s former office manager won’t be incarcerated immediately. She can remain out of prison until February 10 when she is ordered to turn herself in. In addition to reporting to prison, the woman was ordered by the Judge to hand over the keys to her house along with a purse collection valued at $15,000 as part of her restitution.

During the woman’s trial, the court heard that she suffered from gambling addiction and used stolen money to gamble in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Her defense argued that due to the addiction, the money she won gambling was lost to the activity once again. Still, J.W. admitted that she used some of the stolen money for personal expenditures, including expensive purses.