East Tennessee's most famous embezzler is going to jail. She was going to be on MTV's Sweet 16, but she was so crazy she scared them off.
Posted by
David (aka David)
Feb 24 '11, 10:14
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KNOXVILLE - Leslie Janous, the West Knoxville bookkeeper who engaged in a $4 million spending spree at her Norwegian employer's expense, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and money laundering in federal court.
Janous is to be sentenced July 18.
She pleaded to two counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with the embezzlement.
Janous, as is standard practice, said little beyond acknowledging her plea this morning before Senior U.S. District Judge Leon Jordan.
The government alleged that Janous stole hundreds of thousands of dollars over a number years, buying luxury cars, an upscale West Knoxville house, pricy jewelry and funding trips for her and family to places like Las Vegas and Hawaii. In 2006, she also staged a lavish "Sweet 15" birthday party for her daughter, the subject of a long feature story by the News Sentinel.
The thefts occurred over four years from employer Scancarbon.
A deal inked between defense attorney Tom Dillard and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Dale calls for her to admit the full amount of her thievery in return for a whittling down of the original 13 counts filed against her to three - two for wire fraud and one for money laundering. It also appears to spare her domestic partner and daughter - both of whom have been accused by Scancarbon of helping spend and hide the stolen loot - from prosecution.
Janous was still on probation for embezzling from a Sevier County landscaping firm when she was hired by the Norwegian-based precious metals broker to work as a bookkeeper in 2004. Two years later, she began siphoning money from Scancarbon's bank accounts and putting them into her own and using the firm's credit accounts for her own use, the plea agreement states.
She hid her thievery by faking bank records, giving auditors bogus documents and controlling the receipt of mail, the agreement states. When a 2010 audit finally revealed her financial shenanigans, Janous switched money into accounts held by her partner, Leigh Janous, whom she wed in Massachusetts in 2005, and daughter Brittany.
In addition to her guilty pleas, Leslie Janous must cough up whatever remains of her ill-gotten gains. Much of it is gone, spent on whirlwind trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas and New York and the now infamous "Sweet 15" party she hosted for Brittany in 2006.
The feds are taking a slew of other stuff, including her Selby Lane house, which Dale said she paid for by stealing more than $640,000 in a single transaction, and two other properties in West Knoxville.
Two luxury cars and two watercraft vehicles also will be on the federal forfeiture auction block.
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