Nordstrom Worker Gets Prison Time in Embezzlement

A Huntington Harbour woman was sentenced Thursday to four years in state prison for embezzling $750,000 from her employer, Nordstrom Inc.

Faye Chizuko Itaya, 51, pleaded guilty on Feb. 16 to one count of grand theft. A judge also ordered her to repay not only the amount she stole, but an additional $25,943 to cover Nordstrom’s investigation costs.

Nordstrom, Itaya and her attorney did not return phone calls Thursday about the case.

The criminal case was opened in October 1998 after a Nordstrom internal investigation ended with Itaya admitting to a series of thefts from the Brea and South Coast Plaza stores from 1992 to 1997, said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Sevigny.

As executive secretary for the department store’s general manager of men’s merchandising in Orange County, Itaya oversaw the store’s employee recognition program, which handed out cash bonuses.

In increments of several hundred dollars or perhaps $1,000 at a time, she siphoned money out of the program by filing multiple vouchers for the same bonuses, Sevigny said.

Itaya also overcharged the store by about $80,000 on out-of-pocket purchases she made for supplies, he said.

“She took the money in drips and drabs,” Sevigny said. “It looks like she wanted to live a lifestyle she could no longer afford.”

Itaya spent the money on vacations, parties and tuition for her daughter’s private college, Sevigny said.

Nordstrom opened its investigation after Itaya’s supervisors noticed discrepancies in the employee recognition program and Itaya would not produce paperwork that justified expenses.

Itaya has repaid about $100,000 of what she owes the store, some of it out of her retirement plan, Sevigny said.

Itaya will start serving her sentence April 22.