A Saugus woman who stole from local Girl Scouts and pleaded no contest this week to one felony count of embezzlement by a public or private officer was sentenced Friday to one year in jail and five years of formal probation.
Patricia Cascione, 53, appeared for sentencing in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday for embezzling more than $93,000 from the Girl Scouts and a cancer center over a four-year period, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office stated in a news release issued Friday afternoon.
Deputy District Attorney Benyomin Forer of the Cyber Crime Division said Cascione agreed to pay restitution to both victims named in the criminal complaint.
Cascione, a certified public accountant, was the chief financial officer of the Beverly Hills Cancer Center and the volunteer treasurer for two local Girl Scouts of the United States of America chapters, as well as a Girl Scouts service unit when the crimes occurred, Forer was quoted as saying in the news release.
From March 1, 2013, to Feb. 13, 2017, Cascione used funds totaling $58,863 from the Girl Scouts accounts for her personal use.
Furthermore, in her CFO role, the defendant diverted $34,500 in donations from the cancer center to one of her Girl Scouts accounts in order to embezzle the money, Forer said.
Case BA471972 was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Emerging Cyber Trends Team.
Cascione was arrested by detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Fraud and Cyber Crimes Bureau, on suspicion of grand theft and theft by false pretense of over $88,000 in funds allegedly stolen from nonprofit organizations.
After she was arrested, detectives served a search warrant at the Cascione home where they recovered additional evidence, Deputy Marvin Crowder wrote in a news release issued in September 2018.
Over the past 20 years, Cascione was entrusted as the treasurer for multiple Girl Scouts of the USA Troops in addition to a local Girl Scouts service unit in Santa Clarita, he wrote in the 2018 news release.
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