Montgomery Woman Gets Four Years for Embezzlement

A Montgomery woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling more than $100,000 from her Naperville employer, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced Thursday.

Erica Salgado, 24, of the 100 block of Hamlet Court in Montgomery, pleaded guilty on Nov. 8 to one count each of theft over $100,000 and identity theft, prosecutors said. Both charges are Class 1 felonies.

The charges stemmed from Salgado’s time as an employee of Rental Homes Inc. in Naperville. While working as a receptionist there, between April 14, 2009 and May 23, 2010, Salgado wrote herself unauthorized checks, and forged the signature of Rental Homes’ owner, Sandra Walsh, prosecutors said.

In total, Salgado cashed 80 checks totaling $102,690 over that 13-month period, prosecutors said. She was caught when the bank called Walsh to tell her the account had been overdrawn, according to prosecutors.

Salgado will be required to serve half of her sentence before becoming eligible for parole, state’s attorneys said. She will also have to pay the money back in full once she’s released from prison.

“On eighty separate occasions, Erica Salgado stole money from her employer, a seventy-five year old woman who made the mistake of placing her trust in an untrustworthy person,” Berlin said. “More than $100,000 later, Mrs. Walsh’s life has been turned upside down and she finds herself working eighteen hour days just to keep her business afloat and to support herself and her ailing husband.”  

“I would like to thank Judge (Blanche) Fawell for sending the message that white collar crimes have a tremendous impact on their victims and will not be tolerated in DuPage County,” he said.