Jennifer Lynn Horton, 49, now of Shepherdsville, Kentucky
INDIANAPOLIS – A former New Palestine woman who was charged in 2023 with defrauding and defrauding her employer of more than $500,000 and other assets over the past decade has been sentenced to federal prison.
Jennifer Lynn Horton, 49, now of Shepherdsville, Kentucky, has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison followed by one year of supervised release after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud.
The Hancock County District Attorney’s Office filed the case in March 2023 in Hancock County District Court. Federal officials took over the case in March 2024 due to the nature of the charges.
According to court documents, Horton worked from 2011-2022 as an office manager for a family-owned contracting company in Greenfield. She was responsible for managing the company’s payroll, customer invoices and credit cards.
Beginning around January 2016 and continuing through December 2022, officials said Horton devised and executed multiple schemes to brazenly defraud her employer of more than a million dollars — first, by inflating her salary on 466 occasions separate, for a total of $515,000, without approval. . In December 2020, Horton added her husband to the company’s payroll, even though he was not hired as a salaried employee. During that time, Horton stole an additional $107,000 under the guise of her husband’s name.
To cover up her behavior, officials said Horton edited the company’s payroll records to make it appear she was being paid her agreed-upon salary and to delete payments to her husband. After the redacted records were approved, Horton reset the payroll system to make the unauthorized payments to herself and her husband. Horton misled her boss about the company’s financial reports, resulting in a significant financial strain on the company when the true information was discovered.
Horton also redirected credit card payments made by the company’s customers to her personal bank account more than 185 times. She concealed the theft by altering the company’s accounting records to delete invoices or falsely mark them as paid in full to the company.
Horton, officials noted, abused the company’s credit card to pay personal bills and make personal purchases, including a house, cars and clothes. In total, Horton stole $1,116,258 from her employer.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered the forfeiture of her interest in four vehicles — a 2022 Ford F350; a 2022 Ford Mustang; a 2021 Ford Mustang and a 2020 Ford EcoSport — and that she paid a $1,002,268 judgment.
“This criminal abused her friendships and position of trust to defraud a family business of over a million dollars,” Zachary A. Myers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a press release. “Family businesses are a critical driver of our economy, and fraud schemes against them harm those companies, their employees and our community as a whole, and this serious federal prison sentence should send the message that this behavior will not be tolerated.”
Myers thanked his law enforcement partners in Hancock County and the FBI for bringing such crimes to justice.
“Holding individuals accountable for financial crimes like this is essential to protecting the integrity of our businesses and communities,” said Hancock County District Attorney Brent Eaton. “This case serves as a reminder that accountability for the defendant and justice for the victim are crucial in preventing fraud. I would like to thank the dedicated staff of the Hancock County District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Department, the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office and Detective Douglas Cook for their outstanding work and cooperation on this case.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case, with valuable assistance provided by the Hancock County District Attorney’s Office and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney II
US Attorney Myers also thanked Assistant US Attorney Corbin Houston, who prosecuted the case.
