Woman arrested for $25K theft from former employer

A 42-year-old Key Largo woman was arrested Monday for stealing nearly $27,000 from her former employer.

Shonna Lynn Sampedro was charged with 75 counts of fraud – passing a false bill/bank note/check, three counts of grand theft and one count of larceny.

The case began on Sept. 7 when Deputy Joel Torres was called to a construction company on the 102000 block of the Overseas Highway in Key Largo regarding a fraud complaint. The owners stated they noticed some irregular charges and suspicious transactions made by their bookkeeper, Sampedro. The owners stated Sampedro used company money to pay personal utility bills. They subsequently fired Sampedro and kept researching their finances.

Detective Ben Elmore was assigned the case. The investigation found that a total of three company debit transactions and 75 company checks were cashed by Sampedro for a total of $26,945.

Sampedro told Sheriff’s Office investigators that she was not an authorized signer on the business account, but the business owners left pre-signed checks for petty cash as needed. Sampedro said she used those checks. Sampedro stated she cashed the checks at a bank where the company did not do business. She did not have a clear answer for why she would cash the business checks at a bank where the business did not have any accounts.

Warrants were filed for Sampedro's arrest.

She was booked into jail Monday afternoon.