Glen Carbon retirement center employee admits to embezzlement

 EAST ST. LOUIS – Danielle D. Clark, a/k/a Danielle D. Markiewicz, a/k/a Danielle D. Cantrall, 37, of Edwardsville, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in a scheme to defraud the Eden Village Care Center, a not-for-profit retirement community in Glen Carbon, and one count of making a false bankruptcy declaration, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Donald S. Boyce, announced.

Clark faces a statutory maximum prison sentence of up to 45 years, a fine of up to $750,000, and up to three years of supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for June 20. As part of the plea, Clark admitted to filing a false 2015 federal income tax return and agreed to plead also to that charge in the future.

Clark was the director of Human Resources and the accounts payable clerk for the Eden Village Care Center. That placed her in a position of trust to act for the benefit of the Eden Village Care Center. As part of the plea, Clark admitted engaging in a scheme to defraud from 2011 continuing through May of 2016 where she made unauthorized credit transactions using an Eden Village Care Center credit card issued through the Bank of Edwardsville and a Sam’s Club/Walmart credit card, causing a loss to Eden Village Care Center in excess of $700,000.

As part of the scheme Clark prepared fake credit card statements to cover up and continue her embezzlement, forged signatory names on Eden Village Care Center checks to pay for the unauthorized charges using Eden Village Care Center funds, and manipulated the accounting books and created fake invoices for Eden Village Care Center to hide the expenses for the credit card transactions.

The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Glen Carbon Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Internal Revenue Service/Criminal Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Norman R. Smith.