A Lancaster County woman is accused of embezzling nearly $900,000 while employed as the office manager for a Berks County painting business.
Kimberly A. Rossanese, 44, of Reinholds was held for court after a preliminary hearing Monday before District Judge Andrea J. Book in Jefferson Township
Rossanese remained free to await formal arraignment in Berks County Court on charges including theft by unlawful taking, access device fraud and computer trespassing.
State police in Reading filed the charges on March 3.
According to the court records:
On March 30, 2025, Tim Meade reported to state police in Reading that Rossanese, his former employee, was suspected of embezzling money from CertaPro Painters of Reading, house-painting business Meade owns with his wife, Jill.
A subcontractor had reached out to the company, suggesting officials look into their accounts because their company discovered more than $200,000 missing through an audit, Tim Meade told investigators.
Meade said CertaPro found $884,966 missing between 2020 and 2024, when Rossanese was employed.
As the bookkeeper, Rossanese was responsible for entering automated clearing house transactions into QuickBooks, a cloud-based and desktop accounting software, including payments to subcontractors.
Meade said Rossanese masked payments to contractors before rerouting the company transfers to her personal accounts through shadow transactions.
Cpl. Ian Marquardt, a criminal investigator with the Reading station, obtained search warrants for the Wells Fargo Bank accounts involved in the fund transfers.
A review of the records shows Rossanese would transfer money into her three personal accounts, including one in which her paycheck was direct deposited.
In 2023, the year before she was fired for unrelated reasons, there were 108 ACH transfers totaling $370,548 into those accounts from the company accounts.
Marquardt noted Rossanese’s annual salary, according to the company, was $52,000 when she was fired in 2024 for performance issues.
Rossanese was interviewed at the state police station in early January in the presence of her lawyer.
She said she started employment as office manage for CertaPro Painting in Ocrober 2018. Initially she worked out of a basement office in the Penn Township home of Tim and Jill Meade.
The company eventually opened an office in Wyomissing. She said she was let go in May 2024 after a general manager was brought in and determined that her duties could be outsourced to save money.
Marquardt showed Rossanese the bank records. He pointed out the ACH transactions and corresponding bank statements showing the payments that were supposed to go to contractors ending up in her personal account.
Rossanese admitted to diverting the funds. When the trooper pressed for a reason, Rossanese indicated she needed the money to support her lifestyle.