ST. LUCIE COUNTY – Three women were arrested on July 16 and charged with financial fraud involving nearly $7 million, a situation that started nearly seven years earlier, according to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Facebook posting.
The investigation revealed that during that time, Laura Beth Grasso, 43, of Fort Pierce, who served as a bookkeeper and comptroller for a St. Lucie County business, allegedly used her position of trust and unsupervised administrative access to facilitate a scheme resulting in the loss of nearly $7 million, according to the Facebook posting.
Detectives allege that Grasso bypassed established accounts payable procedures to initiate millions of dollars in unauthorized manual wire transfers from the business’s bank accounts to unintended third parties, according to the Facebook posting.
Investigators further allege that Grasso, with the assistance of Sheri Lynn Harrs, 38, of Fort Pierce, and Tina Marie Mejia, 55, of Port St. Lucie, bypassed payroll controls to issue duplicate payments benefiting themselves and one another.
As the investigation continued, detectives uncovered evidence indicating that Grasso allegedly provided Mejia and Harrs with additional payments and covered personal expenses as a means of ensuring their silence regarding the alleged fraudulent activity.
According to detectives, money obtained through the alleged scheme were used for personal expenses, including luxury vehicle purchases, personal utility bills, lavish vacations, fine jewelry, and designer accessories.
Grasso is charged with first degree grand theft of $100,000 or more; conducting an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity; organized fraud of $50,000 or more; and money laundering of $100,000 or more. She was in the St. Lucie County Jail as of July 17 on a $1,150,000 bond, according to the jail web site.
Mejia and Harrs each were charged with first degree grand theft of $100,000 or more; conducting an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity; and organized fraud of $50,000 or more. Each were in the St. Lucie County Jail as of July 17 on a $450,000 bond apiece.