Former office manager embezzled over $200,000 from tax service

CEDAR RAPIDS — A former office manager of a northeast Iowa tax service business who admitted to embezzling over $200,000 pleaded guilty this week in federal court.

Heather Leigh Migliore, 51, of Waukon, was convicted Wednesday in U.S. District of one count of wire fraud.

According to a plea agreement, Migliore admitted she siphoned off money from the tax preparation service with offices in Waukon and Decorah from January 2015 through November 2021. Court documents didn’t identify the name of the business, which was part of a national tax service chain.

Migliore, as the office manager, was responsible for the finances, including making payroll and paying bills, according to the plea agreement. Migliore used a signature stamp of the owner of the business to write and sign checks to herself.

To conceal her scheme, Migliore then deleted the checks from the business’s electronic bookkeeping system, according to the plea. Beginning in July 2019, Migliore also made more than $21,000 in fraudulent credit card charges on the business credit cards. She then used the stolen funds for her personal expenses.

On Dec. 2, 2021, Migliore was fired from her job and told to turn in her keys and retrieve her personal items on Dec. 7 or 8, the plea stated. She came back to the Waukon office on Dec. 7, and asked is she would be arrested. She then pleaded with her employer to keep her job and said she would pay back the money she stole. The employer declined to keep her on.

According to the plea, law enforcement interviewed her April 7, 2022 about the scheme and she admitted that she told her employer she owed the business money. She admitted having access to the business accounts and to writing some checks to herself. Migliore said she wanted to “come clean about everything.”

Migliore said she took the money because she had bills to pay and sometimes she cashed the checks and used the money to gamble at Casino Queen in Marquette, the plea stated. She also used some of the money to pay for a mobile home she rented from her employer.

Migliore also in January 2021, while working at the tax service, committed unemployment fraud, the plea stated. She underreported her wages and received more than $16,000 in unemployment benefits.

U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams will sentence Migliore after a presentence report is completed. She faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine, and an order to pay more than $228,000 in victim restitution.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Vavricek and was investigated by the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office.

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