Wilhelmsen Ships Service defrauded by employee

The former employee was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to repay $4.68 million in restitution    Kathleen Creel, a former employee of Wilhelmsen Ships Service Inc., has been ordered to federal prison following her conviction on 10 counts of wire fraud in connection with defrauding her former company, announced United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson.
   Creel, of New York City, pleaded guilty Feb. 6, 2015.
   On Friday, U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr., who accepted the guilty plea, handed Creel a 60-month prison sentence to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. She was further ordered to pay $4,684,860.51 in restitution. In handing down the sentence, Judge Werlein noted that her claim to want to make repayment “rang hollow” because she had been on release for years and had not yet paid back a single dollar.
   As part of her guilty plea, Creel, 43, admitted that from June 2003 through August 2009, she was employed by Wilhelmsen and a predecessor company at its Pasadena, Texas headquarters as the company’s customs and tax manager. In this role, Creel had access to sensitive financial information, including billing records and bank account information for Wilhelmsen vendors. Creel also admitted she had access to Wilhelmsen bank accounts and the ability to cause Wilhelmsen to make payments to vendors.
   Creel admitted that from at least June 2003 through approximately August 2009, she defrauded Wilhelmsen by embezzling money from the company’s bank accounts.