Strongsville Woman Sentenced for Wire Fraud

A 38-year-old Strongville woman was recently sentenced to 27 months in prison for wire fraud, according to Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells also ordred Antonela Ceabuca to pay $261,093.21 in restitution to the Western Reserve Center for Orofacial and Cosmetic Surgery

Ceabuca was charged on Jan. 20 with one count of wire fraud in connection with scheming to defraud her employer. She pleaded guilt on Feb. 2.

The information charged that between May 2010 and Sept. 30, 2011, Ceabuca, then employed in the billing/accounts department of the Western Reserve Center for Orofacial and Cosmetic Surgery, stole insurance and other reimbursement checks and deposited them in a bank account at , which she had fraudulently opened in the name “Western Reserve Center.”

After depositing the stolen checks into the fraudulent account, Ceabuca withdrew funds from it by ATM transactions, debit card charges and by transferring funds to other Charter One Bank accounts maintained in her name and in the name of family members.

The information charged that in accessing Charter One Bank’s online banking system to check the status of the fraudulent account and to transfer funds between accounts, Ceabuca sent various interstate wire communications between Ohio and Rhode Island, where the bank’s computer servers were located.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Kern, Cybercrimes Coordinator at the Cleveland U.S. Attorney’s Office, following an investigation by the Cleveland Office of the United States Secret Service and the Middleburg Heights Police Department.