Perry woman gets prison time after taking $370K from Perry food plant
A woman who used “ghost employees” to take over $370,000 in wages at a Perry chicken cooking plant will serve over three years in prison, a judge ruled Thursday.
Ashley Moore, 39, appeared in federal court in front of Judge Marc Treadwell on Thursday afternoon to be sentenced after she pleaded guilty to bank fraud on July 9. Through her job as manager of GDI Integrated Services, a facility maintenance and commercial cleaning service, she admitted to obtaining over $370,000 from the Perdue cook plant in Perry from Dec. 1, 2022, to March 31, 2024, according to court records.
She used the identity of eight former GDI employees to make it seem like they had been rehired to work at the Perdue cook plant, but they had not, according to court records. Prosecutors referred to the employees used in the scheme as “ghost employees,” according to court records.
She provided employees with bank cards through Pathward NA, called Rapid Cards, where they would receive their payroll. Moore processed payroll and submitted the hours of the GDI employees to Perdue. Perdue paid for the employees’ wages as well as a service fee, according to court records.
Moore used employee records, which included names, dates of birth, social security numbers and addresses for inactive employees to create the ghost employees. She billed Perdue $266,248.35 in wages, which then totaled $375,757.69, including the service fee. Moore committed the scheme from Dec. 1, 2022, to March 31, 2024, according to court records.
Fraudster says she struggled financially at the time
Moore told Treadwell that she was going through many personal things in her life, one of them being struggling to pay bills. As a single mother, she told Treadwell that she wanted to provide for her family, which led to her committing the crime.
But she accepted responsibility and was willing to accept the consequences, according to her court testimony.
Though she requested her sentence to be served on probation to care for her family, Treadwell sentenced her to three years and five months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay back what she stole, the total amount being $375,757.69.
