Former Propex accounts payable administrator Susan Pilcher was sentenced Thursday in Federal Court to 13 months in prison and to pay restitution totaling $164,613.28.
Ms. Pilcher was charged with wire fraud in 2022. As an accounts payable administrator at Chattanooga-based Propex, she had directed company credit card payments to her own bank account using the Square Incorporated online payment system. The transactions were designed to appear as if they were regular payments to vendors, listed on the billing statement as "Squareup.com."
The fraud continued from April 2018 to October 2021, it was stated.
Propex specializes in correcting erosion issues.
Federal Judge Charles Atchley waived any interest on the stolen money and also waived the financial penalty, which could have been $7,500 to $75,000, because he said Ms. Pilcher could not afford it.
Though representatives of Propex did not attend the sentencing hearing, Ms. Pilcher read a statement of apology to her former co-workers. She named Brad and John by their first names only.
“I’m so sorry that I have let you down,” she said, and asked for their forgiveness. “I wish my heart could speak the words... My heart aches.”
Ms. Pilcher’s 13 months in prison is less than the applicable range of 15 to 21 months. Defense lawyer Stevie Phillips Persinger argued that Ms. Pilcher did not abuse a position of trust that would warrant the longer sentence, though Propex did trust Ms. Pilcher herself. Rather, she was a low-ranking, hourly employee with no special training, she was not a manager or supervisor, and the fraud was documented and available for other employees to see for three and a half years, attorney Persinger said.
Attorney Persinger said that Ms. Pilcher had been “fully cooperative.” She pled guilty immediately, confessed and agreed to prison time. The state of her mental health and family medical circumstances urged Judge Atchley to lessen the prison time, he said.
Ms. Pilcher must report to prison no later than May 12.