Repeat embezzler sentenced after stealing $1.3 million from NC, SC companies
A woman who stole more than $1.3 million dollars from three different employers in the last decade will spend four years in prison.
Lisa Buza Hill, 43, will spend more than four years in prison for her role in back-to-back fraud schemes, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina announced Wednesday. She will serve three years under court supervision after she is released.
In sentencing Hill, U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. emphasized the “brazenness” the Belmont resident possessed in stealing from multiple employers while “still on bond,” according to a news release.
Her crimes date back to 2012 when she wired more than $800,000 from a Kings Mountain motorcycle company, according to the news release. She was convicted of federal wire fraud and was ordered to serve five months of probation, according to a news release.
While paying off restitution, she issued 15 checks to herself, stealing more than $22,000 from another Charlotte employer. She was charged in July 2020 for embezzling from the company where she worked as a controller. She also made false statements to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in reference to the restitution stemming from the 2012 charges.
Not even a year after the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the charges against her, she again embezzled more than $550,000 from her most recent employer, a development company in Rock Hill, S.C. She worked as their chief financial officer.
She spent the money on herself, including on BMW and mortgage payments, a vacation to Disney World and to pay two previous employers the money she owed them.
Hill was in federal custody Wednesday and will be transferred to a federal facility within the Bureau of Prisons, according to the news release.
