Norfolk payroll manager pleads guilty for embezzling over $400,000 from her employer

NORFOLK, Va. – A former payroll manager pled guilty yesterday to wire fraud for embezzling $419,210 from her employer.

According to court documents, from 2022 until 2023, Courtney Johnson-Gregory, 47, was employed by a security services company in Norfolk. Her position gave her access to the company’s bank accounts and permitted her to alter the payment information for employees in the company’s systems.

In February 2023, a review of the payroll system revealed multiple gaps in the sequence of company checks. Through a review of banking records, the company discovered hundreds of additional checks that had not been recorded in the payroll system and that had been paid to inactive former employees of the company.

Further review of the system logs associated with the company’s payroll system reflected that the routing number and account numbers where funds were sent via direct deposit had also been changed for various former employees. Those logs showed that, using the login information assigned to her, Johnson-Gregory had accessed the system, reactivated employee profiles, and, after payments were made to those former employees, deleted the records of the payments.

From February 2022 through February 2023, Johnson-Gregory made over one hundred transfers from the company’s accounts to her own personal bank account, as well as hundreds of other unauthorized automated clearing house (AHC) transfers. In total, $136,145.68 was taken from the company using physical checks and another $283,064.62 was taken from the company’s accounts using unauthorized electronic transfers.

Johnson-Gregory is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 5, 2025. She faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Michael Feinberg, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen accepted the plea.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Mozzi is prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:25-cr-14.