A man and woman involved in an elaborate fraud scheme orchestrated by a supervisor in the accounts payable department at Hamline University have pleaded guilty to their conduct.
Zarice Lee Hoyt, 30, of New Brighton and Rachel Marie Latimer, 24, each entered guilty pleas in Ramsey County District Court this week to one count of felony-level theft by swindle, court records say.
Both had previously faced additional charges that were dropped as a part of their plea deal.
Teresa Ann Garin, Latimer’s mother and the grandmother of Hoyt’s child, has yet to enter a plea to the three counts of theft by swindle facing her in the case.
Garin, 51, was allegedly at the helm of the scheme through her job at Hamline University.
She is accused of stealing more than $150,000 from the school by creating fake vendor accounts and cashing checks issued by the university into her personal bank account, according to criminal complaints.
Police began investigating after Wells Fargo alerted Hamline’s chief financial officer that several of the university’s checks were being deposited into Garin’s personal account. Officers later uncovered that Garin had issued or cashed nearly 70 checks from her employer totaling about $160,000, the complaint said.
She also looped Latimer and Hoyt into the scheme by creating fictitious vendor accounts in their names and depositing checks into them, authorities say. Latimer cashed checks totaling about $73,000 from the university. Hoyt cashed about $34,000 worth of checks.
When interviewed by police, Hoyt said he had “foolishly” agreed to Garin’s scheme because his family needed the money, the complaint said. He reportedly expressed remorse for the theft and offered to pay the university back.
Latimer told officers she gave the “vast majority” of the money she received from the cashed checks to her mother, authorities say.
During her own interview with police, Garin broke down crying and said that she felt a lot of pressure to support her children’s financial needs, the complaint said. She concocted the embezzlement plan to help them out, according to authorities.
Hoyt and Latimer will be sentenced in August. Garin’s next court hearing is in mid July.