A 37-year-old Wheeling woman is serving 27 months in prison after she pled guilty in Federal Court to five counts of wire fraud. Michelle L. Bernskoetter was charged for her actions taken as a financial manager from June 2020 to July 2022. Court documents showed she had devised a scheme to defraud her employer, and embezzled money to settle her personal credit card debt. The total loss to the company topped $402,000.
In addition to her prison sentence, Bernskoetter is to serve 3 years of probation, pay a $500 special assessment, and pay restitution and forfeiture totaling more than $808,000.
The case was investigated by the FBI and Fort Wayne, IN police.