CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A Ross County woman has been indicted for defrauding her employer of more than $650,000, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced on Thursday.
Stephanie Cottrell, 39, Frankfort, was indicted in Ross County Common Pleas Court on two felony charges of theft by deception.
As controller for Rocal Inc., a manufacturer of highway signs, Cottrell allegedly used company credit cards to make unauthorized personal purchases totaling $483,558 from April 2019 to November 2021. The indictment also states that Cottrell paid herself $168,139 in fraudulent overtime during the same period.
The case was referred to the Ohio Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Economic Crimes Unit from the Ross County Sheriff’s Office and investigated by the Economic Crimes Unit and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Forensic Accounting Unit, to provide an impartial accounting of estimated losses, Yost said.
The Consumer Protection Economics Crime Unit is prosecuting the case.
Indictments are criminal allegations. Defendants are presumed innocent unless proved guilty in a court of law.