VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach accountant will spend four years in prison after federal prosecutors say she embezzled a client and illegally spent COVID-19 relief funds.
On Thursday, a judge sentenced Maria Gene Reich, 45, for two counts of wire fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Court documents show that Reich ran a Virginia Beach-based company called On Call Accountants that did bookkeeping, accounting and payroll for small business.
In one case, she was convicted of using her access to a business' finances to pay her company more than had been agreed upon and to pay for personal expenses. Over the course of about four years, federal prosecutors say she took more than $1 million from the local family-owned company.
Reich was also convicted of using COVID-19 relief funds that she got from the federal government for her business for a variety of her own personal expenses. In total, prosecutors say she illegally spent $249,102 of the small-business loan money.
