THursday April 27 2023
Not to accounting students
The owners of the fence company missed the most obvious red flag. Why would a CPA be appllying for a $20 an our job? CPAs do better than that. That red flag should have prompted them to contact t the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy to verify status, the Board wants to ferret out people who falsely claim certification. Only after the fact did they do that. and the judgement against a liar and a theif is not liable to be ccollected.
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A San Antonio bookkeeper accused of embezzling about $380,000 from her employer — and who allegedly continued adding to a long string of such thefts in her next job — has been hit with a $1.4 million court judgment.
Monica Marie Padilla, who’s accused of stealing from Superior Fence Co. of San Antonio LLC while she was employed there for nine months in 2021 and 2022, did not appear Monday at a state District Court trial to defend herself in the civil case.
Testimony during the 90-minute trial, however, revealed that after she left Superior Fence in March 2022, Padilla joined San Antonio’s J&R Tile, where she allegedly stole nearly $200,000.
Reached by phone, J&R Tile owner Erin Albrecht declined to comment.
CHECKERED PAST: How a bookkeeper with a long criminal history keeps getting jobs — and landing in more trouble
The cases are the latest in a long criminal history involving the bookkeeper’s alleged thefts from her employers. So far, she has managed to avoid any significant jail time.
No criminal charges have been filed over the alleged embezzlement at Superior Fence.
State District Judge Nadine Nieto awarded the company almost $380,000 in compensatory damages for its losses and $1 million in punitive damages — or about $240,000 more than it requested. In addition, the company was awarded pre- and post-judgment interest. The company’s lawyer, Steven R. Brown of Dripping Springs, also was awarded almost $56,000 in fees.
“This serves as a warning to people that would go out and commit these kind of frauds that you will be found out sooner or later … and if you are prosecuted either criminally or civilly, there may be severe consequences,” Brown said after the trial.
Padilla, 45, did not respond to an email, so it couldn’t be determined why she didn’t attend the trial. Superior Fence’s lawsuit also named her husband, Raphael Padilla, as a defendant.
'Like family'
Amber Gilbert, who owns Superior Fence with her husband Roger Gilbert, testified how Monica Padilla represented herself as a certified public accountant when she was hired in June 2021 for the $20-an-hour bookkeeper job. Gilbert later discovered Padilla never graduated from college, a prerequisite for becoming a CPA.
Eventually, Padilla was given authority to handle payroll, pay bills and reconcile the company’s books. She had access to company checking accounts, credit cards and even the couple’s personal banking and financial information, Superior Fence alleged in its lawsuit.
“I really saw her as a friend,” Amber Gilbert testified. “She worked very hard to gain our trust. She was very kind to my son. We all loved her. She was like family.”
Padilla suggested Superior Fence open an online account with Melio Payments Inc., which allows small businesses to transfer and receive payments.
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She set up the Melio account using her company email address but falsely represented that she was Superior Fence’s accountant, its lawsuit alleged.
She then set up multiple personal ACH (Automated Clearing House) accounts and had payments sent to herself via the Melio account, Gilbert testified. Padilla allegedly stole $379,997.94.
“It has hurt us deeply,” Gilbert told the judge. “That $379,000 is two years of our profit. It’s an LLC so that’s the income that me and my husband make. So we’re basically working for free for the next two years.”
Superior Fence’s owner discovered Padilla’s alleged wrongdoing when she took time off during her last month of employment, Gilbert said. Vendors notified the company they were not being paid. She had receipts showing the vendors had been paid, but they told her the account numbers and merchant identification numbers weren’t theirs.
“At that point, we knew that we got got,” she said. Superior Fence sued Padilla and her husband on various fraud claims in January.
'Slow moving'
The judge asked if there was a criminal case pending against Padilla for the alleged thefts at Superior Fence. Brown answered there’s a criminal investigation underway but described it as “slow moving.
San Antonio Police “are so backed up,” he said. “They told us it would be nine months before they could even start looking at all the data that we’ve got.”
Court records show Padilla has been indicted three times in Bexar County — unrelated to her employment at Superior Fence — and charged multiple times in El Paso County, where she previously lived under the surnames Padilla and Puga.
In August 2021, she was indicted for fraudulent possession of a lawyer’s identifying information in Bexar County. She pleaded no contest to forgery, while charges in the two other cases were dismissed.
She received a 20-day jail sentence, and court records indicate she served 16 days.
At least two cases are pending against her in El Paso County. A trial had been set for last Friday in two theft cases from 2019, but a court representative said it was not held and will be rescheduled.
She pleaded guilty to forgery and property theft in 2014 and was sentenced to two years in jail, but the sentence was suspended and she was placed on probation, which was later extended.
In addition to the damage awards in the Bexar County case, Nieto ordered a constructive trust. Essentially, that means any stolen money or assets purchased with that money have to be turned over to the trust. The judge also issued a permanent injunction that bars the defendants and some family members from spending or hiding the money.
As for the likelihood of the Gilberts ever seeing any of that, their lawyer said that’s hard to say.
“We will do what we can to collect the judgment,” Brown said.
A February court filing hints that it may be difficult. Attorney David McLane withdrew from representing the Padillas in February, citing, in part, the couple’s “inability to fund this litigation.”
Simultaneously with his motion to withdraw, McLane filed the Padilla’s answer to Superior Fence’s lawsuit. They denied the allegations in the complaint.
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