Fans cheer on the action during the Western Conference Semifinals Game 5 at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on Friday, May 9, 2023. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The former accountant for a local construction firm faces criminal and civil allegations of spending the company credit card on $10,000 courtside seats to a Denver Nuggets game, $33,000 in first-class airfare to Italy, Porsche rentals and gambling in Las Vegas.
Cassandra Stephens, 25, faces nine felony counts of theft and money laundering. An attorney for Stephens, Sarah Croog with the Jurdem firm in Boulder, declined to comment.
Stephens, of Englewood, also faces a lawsuit filed May 1 by her former employer, Elite Surface Infrastructure. That lawsuit describes what Stephens allegedly did, according to ESI.
The construction company says it hired Stephens in 2022, when she was 22 years old, and soon promoted her to assistant controller. That gave her oversight of company credit cards and the task of filing monthly reports outlining all spending on those cards.
Almost immediately, Stephens used the cards for personal Amazon purchases and car repairs, racking up $6,000 in small charges, according to ESI. Then she allegedly escalated.
Using credit cards that departing employees had handed in, Stephens is said to have sent $21,000 to Ticketmaster for the Nuggets seats and other tickets. Then, in September 2023, the cards bought airfare to Italy for Stephens, her girlfriend and her family, ESI says.
Next came a trip to Vegas, “including multiple live performances and track rentals for a Porsche 911,” plus gambling money, last week’s lawsuit alleges. Finally, she allegedly wrote $32,500 in checks to herself and hid all that fraudulent spending from her monthly reports.
ESI, which has been around for 20 years and employs hundreds of people, claims that Stephens’ smallest purchases were her downfall. In the fall of 2023, a co-worker noticed that Stephens was often taking others out to lunch with the company card. A quick check of her monthly reports found those lunches were not being tallied, ESI recalls.
An internal audit followed. After initially denying the thefts and claiming she had been hacked, Stephens “confessed to making the charges,” according to her former employer. The company believes that a total of $158,653 was stolen by its former accountant in 2023.
ESI alerted the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, and Stephens was charged in January. She was scheduled to be arraigned Monday, but that has been rescheduled for June.
ESI and its attorney, Jessica Arett at the Venable firm, declined to discuss the matter.
Fans cheer on the action during the Western Conference Semifinals Game 5 at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on Friday, May 9, 2023. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The former accountant for a local construction firm faces criminal and civil allegations of spending the company credit card on $10,000 courtside seats to a Denver Nuggets game, $33,000 in first-class airfare to Italy, Porsche rentals and gambling in Las Vegas.
Cassandra Stephens, 25, faces nine felony counts of theft and money laundering. An attorney for Stephens, Sarah Croog with the Jurdem firm in Boulder, declined to comment.
Stephens, of Englewood, also faces a lawsuit filed May 1 by her former employer, Elite Surface Infrastructure. That lawsuit describes what Stephens allegedly did, according to ESI.
The construction company says it hired Stephens in 2022, when she was 22 years old, and soon promoted her to assistant controller. That gave her oversight of company credit cards and the task of filing monthly reports outlining all spending on those cards.
Almost immediately, Stephens used the cards for personal Amazon purchases and car repairs, racking up $6,000 in small charges, according to ESI. Then she allegedly escalated.
Using credit cards that departing employees had handed in, Stephens is said to have sent $21,000 to Ticketmaster for the Nuggets seats and other tickets. Then, in September 2023, the cards bought airfare to Italy for Stephens, her girlfriend and her family, ESI says.
Next came a trip to Vegas, “including multiple live performances and track rentals for a Porsche 911,” plus gambling money, last week’s lawsuit alleges. Finally, she allegedly wrote $32,500 in checks to herself and hid all that fraudulent spending from her monthly reports.
ESI, which has been around for 20 years and employs hundreds of people, claims that Stephens’ smallest purchases were her downfall. In the fall of 2023, a co-worker noticed that Stephens was often taking others out to lunch with the company card. A quick check of her monthly reports found those lunches were not being tallied, ESI recalls.
An internal audit followed. After initially denying the thefts and claiming she had been hacked, Stephens “confessed to making the charges,” according to her former employer. The company believes that a total of $158,653 was stolen by its former accountant in 2023.
ESI alerted the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, and Stephens was charged in January. She was scheduled to be arraigned Monday, but that has been rescheduled for June.
ESI and its attorney, Jessica Arett at the Venable firm, declined to discuss the matter.
