Accountant who stole $1 million from Naperville law firm gets 8 years in prison
A Wilmington woman who lived the high life after stealing more than $1 million from a Naperville law firm is headed back to prison.
A DuPage County judge sentenced Leanna Kelty, 55, to eight years in prison Tuesday. She faced a sentence of between four and 15 years after pleading guilty last month to theft in excess of $500,000 from the firm.
Attorney Thomas Anselmo testified during Tuesday's sentencing hearing that Kelty worked in the accounting department at the law firm. Beginning in November 2006 through February 2013, Kelty, on numerous occasions, forged his and other attorneys' signatures and deposited unauthorized checks drawn against the firm's bank accounts into her personal bank accounts.
During a six-year period, Anselmo said, Kelty wrote 139 checks from the firm valued at $1,029,466 and deposited them in bank accounts owned by Kelty and her husband and her husband's business. Anselmo said Kelty covered her tracks by changing the files to show she was writing checks to regular vendors but an investigation later showed the checks did not match the files.
The discrepancies were noticed more than a year after Kelty quit the firm, Anselmo said, because Kelty forgot to change one important item in a file.
"I feel bad that this whole thing happened, but this was not a victimless crime," Anselmo told Judge Robert Miller. "Our law firm was a victim, the partners are victims. There were a lot of victims in this matter. I feel that (Kelty) already got a major break by pleading down from a Class X felony to a Class 1. This crime deserves a lot of time."
According to letters written to DuPage County judges, Kelty said she stole the money to pay for medical bills for her ailing husband but quickly got in over her head and was unable to repay the money.
Naperville Detective Elena Deuchler, however, said a review of Kelty's finances showed no medical expenses, besides an occasional co-pay for a doctor visit.
Deuchler did, however, discover payments for a boat, a Corvette, a Ford pickup truck, several cars and a pair of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Several of those items were seized and sold at auction.
Deuchler said Kelty's husband, who was not charged, was told her newfound riches were proceeds from her previous divorce and a prior land sale.
Kelty, who served six months in prison for stealing $101,000 from the flooring company where she worked after quitting the law firm, was paroled on Dec. 21. She has been held in DuPage County jail on $150,000 bail since that time.
She must serve half her sentence before again being eligible for parole.