A former bookkeeper for two San Rafael, Calif., dealerships appeared in court last Tuesday after being charged with four counts of wire fraud, allegedly taking more than $1.7 million over almost five years.
Christina Markus, 54, worked at the two dealerships from 2010 to 2018, holding various titles such as office accountant, office manager and payroll administrator.
Because these dealerships are considered the victims in the case, they have opted to remain anonymous in court and are only named as the “Victim Dealerships” in court documents.
If found guilty, Markus faces up to a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Court documents said that starting as late as January 2014, Markus created a special payroll for herself and transferred funds from the dealerships to her own bank account.
The documents allege she was able to successfully accomplish this through using the dealership management system, where she was tasked with posting ledgers. Using this software system, Markus was able to write checks, create bonuses and add vacation pay for herself, the court documents said.
The software system allowed her to take these funds, move them to her personal bank account and void the checks and bonuses through manipulating the ledgers. By doing this, she could make sure that the money did not show up on her tax forms, a press release by the U.S Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of California said.
Markus was caught knowingly transferring funds to herself from the software through an FBI investigation, the press release said.
Markus’s next court appearance is scheduled for April 20. Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
