A former bookkeeper for a Southern Oregon lumber company has pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing nearly $1 million from her employer over almost a decade and hiding the income from the Internal Revenue Service.
Christina Klauda, 53, of Riddle, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and two counts of making and subscribing false federal income tax returns, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford’s office in Portland.
Klauda went to work as office manager and bookkeeper for Tower Timber Services Inc., a Riddle-based lumber company, in 2014. Her duties included handling payroll, accounts payable, invoicing, employee dispatch and the preparation of employees’ tax forms.
According to court documents, she used that access to steal from the company from 2014 through 2023. Klauda acknowledged losses of at least $944,371.97, while federal prosecutors put the company’s losses at more than $1.08 million.
The plea agreement describes a scheme that started small and grew over time. Klauda first raised her own hourly and overtime pay rates and inflated the number of hours she recorded in the company’s payroll system.
In 2018, she set up a second employee profile in the company’s accounting software so she could collect her pay twice — once by direct deposit and again by paper check. She then deleted records of the paper check transactions to keep them hidden.
Klauda also admitted to using the company owner’s signature stamp without permission to write checks to herself and to her personal creditors. She labeled those payments as loans, reimbursements or draws before removing them from the company’s books.
None of that money was reported to the IRS. Klauda admitted to leaving about $38,140 in stolen income off her 2018 federal tax return and about $74,144 off her 2019 return, resulting in a combined tax loss of $27,985.
As part of her plea, Klauda agreed to pay restitution to Tower Timber and the IRS. The two sides estimate the total will fall between about $972,357 and $1.11 million.
The bank fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison, a $1 million fine and five years of supervised release. Each of the two tax charges carries a maximum of three years in prison, a $100,000 fine and one year of supervised release.
A sentencing date was not included in the announcement.
IRS-Criminal Investigation handled the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine A. Rykken is prosecuting.