May 14, 09

NEWS / Spanaway Woman Sentenced to 20 Months in Prison for Wire Fraud Embezzled More Than $275,000 from Fre

RAYNA DYE, 31, of Spanaway, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 20 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $277,266 in restitution for wire fraud. DYE was the Accounts Payable Manager for Cruise Logistics, LLC. d/b/a Freightco Logistics (“Freightco”), from January 2007 until May 2008. Freightco is a Seattle based freight forwarding company. DYE used her position of trust to have company funds wired to her personal bank accounts. According to court filings, DYE used the money to support her cocaine habit. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Richard Jones said, “You committed the crime for one reason: plain old-fashioned greed.”

DYE pleaded guilty to a charging information filed in January 2009. In her plea agreement she admits that she directed a company doing business with her employer to wire nearly $6,000 to her personal bank account. The deposit was just one instance of some $277,266 DYE embezzled in this way.

The CEO of Freightco says the embezzlement was a significant financial hit at a very difficult time for the company. Beyond the financial difficulties, the fraud also damaged the company’s culture and reputation. Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Remeto wrote, “it changed our culture from one of trust and friendship to questioning how this could have happened and why individuals (including myself) could have trusted someone who would steal from the company . . . In order to hide the fraud, Rayna manipulated the accounts of many of our vendors . . . This has hurt our business goodwill, which will take years to repair.”

In asking for the prison sentence, Assistant United States Attorney Jim Lord wrote to the court that the sentence should “appropriately sanction Dye for the great harm that she caused to Freightco and would send the a message to the community that white collar crime like this doesn’t pay.”

The case was investigated by the FBI and King County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jim Lord.

For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney’s Office, at (206) 553-4110 or Emily.Langlie@USDOJ.Gov.