Woman Sentenced After Defrauding Realty Employer

A woman in the St. Louis metro area is set to do three years in the slammer after embezzling her employer — a local real estate company — out of nearly half of a million dollars, using the funds on meals and wheels.

Crystal Hendrix, 50, was sentenced to three years in prison after embezzling $487,000 from her employer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office out of the Eastern District of Missouri announced. The Festus woman pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in March.

As part of her position at the company, Hendrix handled payroll and had access to the company’s bank accounts. From January 2018 to December 2020, Hendrix sent more than 140 payments to her own bank account, totaling more than $483,000. The stolen funds went toward restaurant bills and a vehicle purchase, according to the plea agreement.

In addition to the prison sentence, Hendrix was also ordered to repay the money she stole and fined an additional $10,000.

The Real Deal could not immediately identify what company Hendrix worked for and the release from the Eastern District of Missouri did not identify what it was, though it did say she is no longer an employee. The Eastern District of Missouri did not return a request for comment.

Cases involving real estate fraud are not uncommon in the country, though embezzling funds from one’s own company is a twist.

A few weeks ago, real estate developer Robert Matthews was sentenced in Connecticut federal court to over five years in prison following a series of multimillion frauds in that state, Florida and Massachusetts.

The 65-year-old West Palm Beach man was facing charges of conspiracy, money laundering, and tax evasion related to real estate swindles that reportedly caused losses of more than $30 million to banks and investors.