(WXIN/WTTV) — A former bookkeeper at an Indiana nonprofit will spend over a year behind bars after pleading guilty to stealing $79,000 from incapacitated senior citizens’ bank accounts.
Brenda Denise Walters, 57, of Nappanee, was sentenced this week to 22 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release. This comes after she pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to 10 counts of wire fraud.
Court documents detail how Walters was hired in Aug. 2023 as a bookkeeper for Organization A, a local nonprofit. Walters was reportedly in charge of the Guardianship Program, which provides court-appointed legal guardians for incapacitated older adults and manages their finances.
In her part-time role, Walters oversaw the bank accounts of over 20 program clients and was responsible for paying bills and managing investments. Investigators found that, for nearly a year, the bookkeeper instead defrauded her “mentally incapacitated elderly adult clients.”
Walters reportedly stole money from the victims’ bank accounts for her own personal benefit, using the money to pay her utility bills, buy clothes, host parties and take expensive vacations to New York, Florida and Pigeon Forge.
To conceal the theft, Walters then falsified bank statements and hid transfers to her personal accounts. Documents detail how she created a fake United Healthcare bill for a client to disguise a transfer to her Apple Card. Another time, she falsely labeled a check as being for “plumbing.”
In total, Walters stole over $79,000 from at least six clients of the Guardianship Program. Tom Wheeler, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said she “preyed exclusively on some of the most vulnerable members of society.”
“Her conduct was not a momentary lapse in judgment but a calculated scheme to enrich herself at the expense of people who had no ability to defend themselves,” Wheeler said. “This office will continue to pursue justice for victims who are targeted because of their age, incapacity, or dependence on others.”
After pleading guilty earlier this week to 10 counts of federal wire fraud, Walters was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge James R. Sweeney II to 22 months in prison. Upon release, she will serve three years of probation.
No mugshot or booking photo of Walters was made publicly available.
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Nonprofit bookkeeper who stole $79,000 from senior citizen clients gets 22 months in prison
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