A former Meriden woman has been sentenced on federal fraud charges for stealing over $35,000 from her employer, and court documents show this is the second time she's been convicted of this type of crime.
The US Attorney’s office confirms 54-year-old Yolanda Silverio, who used to live in Meriden but now resides in Austin, Texas, was sentenced to 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised released and community service for crimes committed while she worked for a Connecticut company that administered trust funds for health benefit plans.
According to court documents, Silverio worked as an Eligibility Coordinator, where her responsibilities included handling payment checks for union-related health benefits for a particular health plan. Prosecutors said that between May 2013 and July 2014, Silverio deposited 49 benefit checks, totaling $35,461, into her personal bank accounts.
Authorities said that Silverio was previously convicted of similar charges. According to court documents, she was accused of forging over 100 checks from business accounts at two other Connecticut companies where she worked between 2000 and 2001. She stole over $200,000, the documents state.
Silverio was convicted of those offenses in 2004 and sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment with the last five months on home detention. She was also ordered to pay $125,000 in restitution in that case, with $57,000 due immediately. The sentencing memo states she never paid the $57,000 and served six months in prison, and to date has paid only $3,536 of the restitution in that case.
On top of the prison time and supervised release ordered in the current case, she will have to pay restitution of $35,461. The judge also ordered that Silverio will have to inform any new employers about her two fraud convictions in writing.
“Given the incessant nature of Ms. Silverio’s fraud scheme, undeterred by a prior fraud conviction for nearly identical conduct, the government views it of critical importance for Ms. Silverio’s sentence in this case to specifically deter her from future fraud and to protect the public,” officials wrote in the sentencing memo.
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Silverio was released on a $15,000 bond and is due to report to prison on March 26, 2018.
The case was investigated by the US Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General and the US Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration's Boston Office.
