A Waukon woman who embezzled over $200,000 from her employer was sentenced on February 1, 2024, to nine months in federal prison. Heather Leigh Migliore, age 52, received the prison term after a July 19, 2023 guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
In a plea agreement, Migliore admitted that, between 2015 and 2021, she was the office manager of a tax preparation business that had offices in Waukon and Decorah in Winneshiek County, Iowa. Migliore wrote over 600 fraudulent checks for her own benefit from the business’s checking accounts without her employer’s knowledge or permission. Migliore also used one of the business’s credit cards to make over 200 fraudulent charges. The owner of the business had to use a home equity line of credit to pay its bills during this timeframe. In early 2021, Migliore also made false statements to the State of Iowa to obtain approximately $900 in federally funded, COVID-19 unemployment benefits.
Migliore was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Migliore was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. She was ordered to make $229,351 in restitution. She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Migliore was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office. This was a lengthy investigation done by the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office. Upon completion of the investigation the Sheriff’s Office turned the case over to United States Attorney’s Office Northern District of Iowa for prosecution.