Crime & Safety

Vienna Woman Pleads Guilty to Fraud

Nancy Preston admits to embezzling more than $600,000 from Clyde's Restaurant Group.

A Vienna woman who pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling more than $600,000 from Clyde's Restaurant Group now faces 20 years in prison.

Nancy Preston, 55, was charged with mail fraud for embezzling $647,547 from Clyde’s Restaurant Group over the course of a decade. Preston worked for the company from 1982 until 2011; between 1992 and September 2011, she served as the corporate controller, a role in which she oversaw the the company's accounting, according to a news release from the FBI

In her plea agreement, Preston agreed to sign over $258,000 worth of equity-based incentive stock awards and/or options to Clyde's. She also agreed to additional forfeiture of $389,069. 

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Her sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Between 2001 until 2011, Preston embezzled money by diverting the company's money to pay her personal credit card, using the corporate credit card for personal use and using a Clyde's vendor to obtain goods for her personal use, the FBI said.

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Preston also asked a vendor to alter invoices; fabricated emails seeking reimbursement for company purchases then used the money to pay her personal credit card; categorized expenses used for personal matters to falsely show as corporate expenses; and deleted unauthorized items on the company credit card statement when she learned of an audit.

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