Bookkeeper gets jail, spent money on breast implants, Italian vacation

A part-time bookkeeper in Santa Ana was sentenced Friday to eight years in state prison for embezzling more than $750,000.

Between 2007 and 2012, Lisa Jeanette Dorman, 43, was spending more than $20,000 a month on average, when she was only earning $2,000 a month, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Dorman was hired in October 2007 as the part-time bookkeeper for Stratus Development LLC, where she embezzled more than $171,000 over about two years by writing herself extra salary checks and depositing into her own accounts checks made out to fictitious vendors, prosecutors said.

In November 2009, Dorman resigned from her position at Stratus Development and accepted a new position as part-time bookkeeper for Southern California Contractors. Between December 2009 and February 2012, Dorman embezzled more than $578,000 from the company by creating false entries in the company’s check ledger to hide extra salary checks she paid to herself and writing more than 300 forged checks paid to fictitious accounts of payable vendors, which she deposited into her personal accounts.

During the five-year period, she had cosmetic breast enhancement surgeries, bought a Cadillac Escalade and a Toyota FJ Cruiser, racing motorcycles and a $20,000 dune buggy for her children, prosecutors said. She also took several European vacations, including a 12-day Italian getaway to Florence and Rome that cost more than $47,000, according to the district attorney’s office.

Dorman pleaded guilty May 22, 2014, to two counts of grand theft embezzlement, nine counts of money laundering, one count each of forgery and falsifying financial records, with various sentencing enhancements for the amount of money involved. She was also ordered to pay more than $789,000 in restitution to the companies that were victimized.

Stratus Development uncovered the embezzlement after Dorman left the company and reported the crime to the Irvine Police Department. Southern California Contractors reported the embezzlement to the Huntington Beach Police Department. Both police departments investigated the case.

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