Embezzler sent to prison

Embezzler sent to prison
Woman stole $400K in 6 years
Written by John Hult

A Sioux Falls woman who stole $400,000 from her employer during six years will spend at least one year and nine months in prison for the crime.

On Wednesday, 55-year-old Karen Lee Lovro was sentenced to 15 years in the prison for aggravated grand theft from Musivend Enterprises, where she had worked for nearly two decades and had come to be regarded as a close and trusted friend by her boss.

Judge Joseph Neiles suspended nine years of the sentence and told Lovro that she'd probably be eligible for parole on the remaining six years by January 2013 because she did not have a criminal record.

Lovro received a lighter sentence in part because she cashed in her retirement account and sold her home to pay off $126,200 of her $399,595 restitution bill before Thursday's sentencing.

Lovro's defense lawyer, Jan Olson, told Neiles that her client's crime had its roots in an unhappy marriage and her children's departure from the home. She began to go out, Olson said, and picked up a video lottery habit that soon was sucking up $700 a week.

"Once she got in the cycle, she couldn't get out," Olson said.

The 226 checks she wrote to herself from her employer's account fueled her growing gambling addiction, and Olson said the shame she's felt explaining herself to her friends and family since the theft was discovered has been devastating.

"I don't know if Karen has stopped crying for the last year," Olson said. "I'm not telling you that to get sympathy, I'm just saying it because I think it shows how remorseful she really is."

Prosecutor Tom Hensley told the judge that Lovro's otherwise exemplary life and her efforts to pay her restitution up front can't undo the years of theft. Lovro essentially kept two sets of books to hide all the individual thefts.

"Audits were done. Reports were made," Hensley said. "She was good. She was a very crafty thief, and she hid her tracks very well."

The theft hurt not only the owners, Hensley said, but also the family-run business' other 12 employees. They could have been given raises if the money were there, he said.

Lovro will begin serving her sentence in two weeks and will be required to pay the remainder of her restitution by the end of her 15-year sentence.