Pittsburgh Insurance Agency Employee Steals $432K

The former bookkeeper for a Pittsburgh insurance agency has pleaded guilty to mail fraud for stealing more than $432,000 from the business.

Federal prosecutors say 45-year-old Debrah Wenig, of Pittsburgh, was one of two people needed to sign checks for the Wallace M. Reid insurance agency.

Authorities say Wenig signed checks to herself and her creditors, then forged the names of supervisors on them. Wenig then covered up the thefts by making false bookkeeping entries and by destroying many of the canceled checks that were returned from banks.

Authorities say she stole the money from November 1997 until being discovered in September 2008.

Wenig faces up to 20 years in prison when she’s sentenced March 18.