SLO County bookkeeper who embezzled more than $500,000 sentenced to prison
An Arroyo Grande bookkeeper was sentenced to 10 years in state prison Wednesday after admitting that she embezzled more than $500,000 from local businesses, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
Ginger Lee Mankins, 56, pleaded guilty in San Luis Obispo Superior Court to six counts of felony embezzlement, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, victim Jill Machado said she had a 20-year relationship with Mankins that she described as personal in nature, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Machado reportedly said that the damage inflicted was “was not “just financial” but also “calculated, deliberate, drawn out over a long period of time and extremely impactful on our lives.”
In imposing the 10-year prison sentence, Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Duffy described the impact of Mankins’ actions as a ”tremendous loss and violation of trust,” the District Attorney’s Office said.
Mankins was a bookkeeper for Rick Machado Livestock from 2007 through 2017 and for B&D Farms from 2008 through 2017, stealing from both businesses, prosecutors said.
Mankins will also be ordered to repay the money she stole “in an amount to be determined by the court at a hearing set for Jan. 12, 2022,” the District Attorney’s Office said.
“Embezzlement committed by employees or friends in positions of trust are especially troubling, particularly when it involves staggering amounts of stolen funds over such an extended period of time,” District Attorney Dan Dow said in the release. “Our Major Fraud Unit stands ready to aggressively prosecute these and other financial crimes that harm specific victims and adversely affect our community’s economic vitality.”
According to the release, the case was investigated by the District Attorney’s Office’s Bureau of Investigations with the assistance of the Arroyo Grande Police Department and was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Michael Frye, assigned to the District Attorney’s Special Prosecutions Unit that includes both Major Fraud and Public Integrity.
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