A Loretto, Tennessee woman was arrested after being indicted on 3 counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft related to an embezzlement scheme.

 

According to a release from the United States Attorney’s Office of Middle Tennessee, Kimberly Hodge, who also went by the name Kimberly Hughen, of Loretto, Tennessee, was indicted on three counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft related to an embezzlement scheme that exceeded $200,000.

The release stated that Hodge was the bookkeeper for Integrity Architectural Millwork (Integrity) where her job included making Quickbooks entries and recording payments to vendors.

From February 2019 to April 2020, Hodge had “fraudulently made deposits into her personal bank account from the operating account of Integrity and caused fraudulent payments to be made to her account from Integrity’s credit card.”

Also according to the statement released in February of 2019 Hodge had forged the name and signature of the owner of Integrity to apply for a loan from a financial institution in the amount of $150,000 using the Integrity owner’s personal information, including a photo of the owner’s driver’s license during the loan application.

In April of 2020, the Integrity company was given loan of $127,447 from the Payroll Protection Program of the Small Business Administration, under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act where the money was supposed to be utilized towards employee salaries and business expenses of Integrity during the COVID-19 pandemic, but supposedly Hodge transferred the money from the COVID funding into the Integrity operating account to hide evidence of her fraud.

Once Integrity discovered the fraud Hodge was terminated from her position, but according to the company Hodge “continued to attempt to make fraudulent purchases using Integrity’s credit card. ”

In the indictment it also contains a forfeiture allegation where the government seeks a money judgment of at least $209,443.63, which represents the proceeds of the crimes committed.

Last week Hodge surrendered herself to the Federal Bureau of Investigation where the case was being investigated by the FBI and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Fraud Division with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn W. Booth prosecuting the case.

If Hodge is found guilty of the charges she could face up to a mandatory minimum of two years in prison for the aggravated identity theft charge and up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud along with a fine of $250,000.

The release from the United States Attorney’s Office states that “An indictment is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”