Woman Admits Using Computer to Steal $1 Million at Security Firm

Pinkerton Security & Investigation Services, the 141-year-old detective agency whose slogan is “the eye that never sleeps,” was caught napping by an employee who embezzled more than $1 million from the firm.

Marita Juse, 48, of Burbank pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this week to computer fraud, one of the first such cases in Southern California.

Juse also pleaded guilty to unrelated 1986 charges of conspiracy, theft of government property and false claims in connection with a scheme to submit false tax returns claiming refunds, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Lee Michaelson. She faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines when she is sentenced Oct. 28.

Juse and three others were charged with tax fraud in 1986, but she went into hiding before she could be arrested, Michaelson said. While on the run, Juse took the alias Tomasa Gonzalez and got a job in Pinkerton’s accounting department in Van Nuys.

She was given the computer log-on and approval codes to make wire transfers on Pinkerton’s Security Pacific Bank account. Between January, 1988, and December, 1990, Juse wired $1,082,307.41 of Pinkerton funds to her own account and the accounts of two fictitious companies, Michaelson said. She was last seen at work Jan. 7.

Pinkerton discovered the theft through a routine internal audit after Juse left the firm, said Sally Phillips, assistant general counsel for Pinkerton.

The agency turned the investigation over to the Secret Service, which has jurisdiction over such matters. Juse was caught by the Internal Revenue Service in April.

Juse’s attorney, Richard M. Steingard, said his client pleaded guilty to the charges because she is “extremely remorseful for what she did. She accepted responsibility for her conduct. This is her way of saying, at this juncture, that she fully accepts responsibility for her wrongdoing.”

Michaelson said she could not discuss whether Juse spent all the money she had embezzled until after sentencing.

Phillips said the stolen money was covered by the firm’s insurance.

The Pinkerton case is one of the first filed in Southern California to prosecute computer fraud, which recently was designated an area of national emphasis by the Justice Department, Michaelson said.

“More and more people are gaining access to computers and the potential for astronomical losses just multiplies,” she said. “It’s a serious problem.”

The 1986 charges stem from a scheme in which Juse was filing false W-2 forms for fictitious employees while working in the payroll department of a Los Angeles-based company, and then filing income tax returns to collect refunds. Michaelson said Juse received and cashed checks for about $26,000 out of more than $96,000 she sought in tax refunds.

Juse is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, where she has been since her arrest.