Accountant gets prison for embezzlement

LOS ANGELES - A former community college accounting assistant charged last month with half a dozen counts - including grant theft by embezzlement and identity theft - pleaded guilty last week.Mandy Deborah Borquez, 33, pleaded guilty to two counts of grand theft and admitted an allegation that the related felonies involved the taking of more than $150,000, according to the district attorney's office. The allegation requires that Borquez serve her custody time in state prison rather than county jail. Borquez was immediately sentenced to three years, four months in prison. She was also ordered to pay restitution totaling more than $423,000. Borquez, who worked as an accounting assistant at Antelope Valley College, embezzled almost $510,000 between 2004-10, prosecutors said. The theft was discovered after an audit by Borquez's supervisor.

********** Published: December 22, 2011 - Volume 10 - Issue 36