CFO Guilty of Embezzling $1M for Designer Clothes

A federal jury in Chicago convicted former chief financial officer Tina Feuerstein of embezzling more than $1 million from her employer. (justice.gov) Feuerstein, 53, of Hanover, Pennsylvania, was found guilty on April 9, 2026, of eight counts of wire fraud after a four-day trial in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Prosecutors said she was the chief financial officer of a Pennsylvania company owned by a Chicago-area parent. (justice.gov) Trial evidence showed she used a company credit card for five years to buy personal items, including luxury furniture, designer apparel and everyday expenses. Prosecutors said the charges totaled more than $1 million. (justice.gov) The government said Feuerstein hid the spending by falsifying entries in the company’s general ledgers and deleting more than 3,800 charges from the expense-reporting system. Prosecutors also said she prepared false consolidated financial statements that understated total expenses. (justice.gov) That matters in a finance role because a chief financial officer oversees bookkeeping, expense controls and the financial statements executives use to run the business. In this case, prosecutors said the employer relied on those misstated reports to make business decisions. (justice.gov) The verdict came in federal court, where each wire-fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt set sentencing for Aug. 26, 2026. (justice.gov) Prosecutors also told jurors that Feuerstein had previously embezzled more than $250,000 while working in the accounting department of another company. The conviction was announced by the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Chicago field office. (justice.gov) The case now moves to sentencing, with Feuerstein facing punishment on eight felony counts tied to a five-year scheme prosecutors said was concealed inside the company’s own books. (justice.gov)