Report: Des Plaines woman pleads guilty to stealing more than $500,000 from employer

A Des Plaines woman pleaded guilty Monday to stealing more than $500,000 from a health care company in Lincolnwood, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

Shawna Wolff-Giesler, 42, pleaded guilty to felony theft for stealing $562,000 from Econocare, a long-term care provider, the Tribune reports.

Wolff-Giesler was sentenced to four years in prison and, sentenced to two years of parole following her release, the Tribune reports.

She has already paid $50,000 in restitution to Econocare.

Wolff-Giesler was charged in June with continuing a financial crimes enterprise and theft, according to a news release from the Cook County state's attorney's office.

From 2007 to 2015, Wolff-Geisler worked in the accounting department at Econocare and was responsible for handling accounts receivable and accounts payable. Her job also included preparing checks for authorized expenditures, though she was not authorized to sign checks, according to a news release at the time of her arrest.

After she was fired from the company in August 2015, a financial inspection revealed suspicious checks written on the corporate bank account.

The state's attorney's office said there were approximately 80 checks on which she forged the signature of the company's CEO and owner.

The checks were deposited directly to Wolff-Geisler's bank account or applied to her account balances for her personal credit cards, according to the release.

Wolff-Geisler was facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted at trial.