Former Dealership Employee to Serve 15 Months for Embezzlement

A Newport woman is going to federal prison for 15 months for her part in a $368,000 embezzlement scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Vermont said Monday, reported Burlington Free Press.

Manon Cote, 47, had admitted to committing forgery between January 2007 and January 9, 2012 in connection with the money stolen from DeLaBruere's Auto Sales, Inc., court records show.

Cote embezzled the money between 2006 and 2012 while serving as the office manager for the new and used car and truck dealership in Newport, the investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and state police showed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples said Cote took the money primarily by stealing cash from the daily receipts she was responsible for depositing into the company's account at the Community National Bank.

Cote tried to cover up the thefts by writing company checks to unauthorized persons in amounts equal to the sum of cash she was stealing, then depositing the checks back into the company bank account, officials said.

Cote used without authority the signature stamp of the sole owner Gilles DeLaBruere to issue those checks, the indictment said.

"Cote stole additional company funds by improperly issuing checks to herself; by using company funds to pay personal loans; and by using the company credit card for personal reasons," Waples said in a news release. Among the personal purchases was a laptop computer

Senior Federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha, presiding in Brattleboro, told Cote that once discharged from prison that she will be on supervised release for three years.

Murtha broke down the restitution: $267,785 to DeLaBruere's Auto Service as the first priority until paid in full, $50,360 to Sentry Insurance and $50,000 to Zurich American Insurance.

The judge waived interest on the restitution.

Murtha told Cote to surrender Nov. 18 to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He said he would recommend she serve her sentence at the minimum security satellite camp at the federal prison in Danbury, Conn.

A federal grand jury in Burlington returned a three-count indictment on March 21, 2013, charging Cote with mail and wire fraud and forging checks of an organization, officials said.

Two fraud counts were dismissed Monday as part of the plea bargain. Cote pleaded guilty to the forgery charge last October. Her sentencing was scheduled five times before it was held Monday.