Susan Tranberg, who worked for the Weyerhauser Company for more than 40 years, was sentenced to 57 months in prison for tax evasion, wire fraud and defrauding her employer of more than 4.5 million dollars.
Tranberg’s scheming began in 2004 when she created a fake timber contract between the company and a vendor she named after her mother, who was not involved in the fraud. Over the next decade Tranberg received more than 2.6 million dollars through the bogus company. In 2014 Weyerhauser transitioned to a different payment processing system and Tranberg submitted new documentation, including 1099 and W9 paperwork signed by her mother, who had been deceased for five years. Tranberg forged colleagues’ signatures on check requests and used other colleagues’ log in credentials to approve payments.
The majority of the money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle of vacations, expensive dinners, six figure wedding expenses and shopping sprees.
Tranberg was ordered to pay $775,984 to Weyerhauser, $3,805,223 to the Crime Victims Fund and $807,033 to the IRS
