Woman Gets 10 Years for Embezzlement

A former Newbury Park woman who went on a three-year spending spree while embezzling more than $370,000 from her employer has received 10 years in state prison, authorities said.

Connie S. Biller, 50, was sentenced in Ventura County Superior Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 14 counts of grand theft, forgery and filing false income tax returns between 1991 and 1994.

Biller worked 14 years as a bookkeeper for a Los Angeles gynecologist and obstetrician who owned a Moorpark shopping center.

“The last three of the 14 she forged approximately 1,000 checks,” said Sgt. Mike Nogura, an investigator with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. “The doctor trusted her deeply.”

Cashed checks showed that Biller used some money to buy a $45,000 recreational vehicle, clothes at Beverly Hills department stores and jewelry from TV shopping channels, Nogura said. The victim discovered the crime when he received a notice for unpaid property taxes on the shopping center Biller managed.

The 69-year-old Westwood physician, Ata Egrari, confronted the woman and she repaid $25,000 and promised to pay back more money. However, she did not, despite a $263,000 civil judgment against her, and Egrari called police.

After being fired from her job in October 1994, Biller went on to embezzle another $5,686 from a Thousand Oaks car rental company and worked at a Wal-Mart store in Clearlake where she was arrested last May, Nogura said.

At Tuesday’s sentencing, Biller was ordered to pay $529,000 in restitution to Egrari and $70,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest to the Franchise Tax Board for failing to report the embezzled funds as income. However, neither Egrari nor the state is likely to see any money, said tax board spokeswoman Denise Quade.

“There’s nothing left,” Quade said, “unless she gets out of prison and hits the lottery.”