Plea deal is set in thefts from O.C. Red Cross

A former accountant for the American Red Cross has agreed to plead guilty today to embezzling more than $100,000 from the organization’s Orange County chapter. Prosecutors say she used the money for a trip to Las Vegas, shopping sprees, an underwater camera and membership in the San Diego Zoo.

Karen Shuerger, 58, could face two years in federal prison when she’s sentenced in about three months, Assistant U.S. Atty. Robb Adkins said. The plea agreement requires her to pay $110,000 in restitution.

“We are satisfied,” he said, “and I think the Red Cross is pleased.”

Shuerger, a former Santa Ana resident now living in Henderson, Nev., could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, Charles Farano, said she agreed to the plea in part to avoid a trial. “She’s facing some significant health problems,” he said, “and the stress of going through a trial like this is really quite a bit. We’ve offered to cooperate with the government, and she’s stepping up to the plate.”

A Red Cross employee for nearly 18 years, Shuerger is accused of taking the money between 2000 and her October 2005 retirement as assistant director of accounting. Her duties included ordering traveler’s checks for workers embarking on disaster-relief missions. Prosecutors say she ordered additional checks, some for more than $20,000, for her and her husband’s personal use.

In addition, they say, Shuerger used the nonprofit’s credit card to pay her personal credit card bills as well as make purchases at Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall in Las Vegas.

The fraud came to light after Shuerger’s replacement had trouble balancing the books and the Red Cross called in an independent accounting investigator in mid-2006.

This week the former accountant agreed to plead guilty to four counts of mail and wire fraud, Adkins said. She is scheduled to appear today in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana to formally enter her plea.

david.haldane@latimes.com