Office manager steals large amount of money from Marathon business

A Marathon woman was arrested Monday, charged with stealing over $80,000 from her employer, Marathon Garbage Service, over the past five months.

One of the duties of front office manager 34 year old Michelle Ludwig was do payroll for the company. She is accused of writing checks to herself over and above her normal paychecks and using the scanned electronic signature of the owner to sign the checks. She cashed the 69 checks, totaling $83,443.65, on a weekly basis since February.

The company’s accountant told Detective Rosary Ponce she had been asking Ludwig for company records for two months and finally received the records on July 17th. She said after reviewing the records, she noticed discrepancies. When she confronted Ludwig with the issues, Ludwig reportedly admitted to stealing the money. She told the accountant she had a drug addiction and was using the stolen money to finance it. After admitting the theft to the accountant, she went to the company’s president, Ronald Konrath, and told him what she had been doing. She told Konrath she had been forging his father’s signature on the checks and said she wanted to repay the money. At that point, the Konrath family that owns the company notified the Sheriff’s Office and said they wished to press charges.

On July 21st, Detective Rosary Ponce began investigating the theft. She obtained a warrant for Ludwig, who turned herself in on Monday. Ludwig is charged with 69 counts each of grand theft, forgery and fraud. Her bond was set at $207,000.

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