Property management accountant sentenced for stealing nearly $1 million

The chief accountant for an Inland Empire property management firm was sentenced today to four years, nine months in federal prison for embezzling close to $1 million from clients.

Jenev Boyd, 60, of Corona pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft under an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office.   

During a hearing Friday at U.S. District Court in downtown Riverside, federal Judge Sunshine Sykes imposed the term of imprisonment validated by the agreement and further ordered Boyd to pay $781,810 in restitution to the victims.   

According to prosecutors, the defendant was director of accounting for Encore Property Management, which serves homeowners' associations in the Corona area and elsewhere.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said that from January 2012 to August 2020, Boyd used previously inactive client accounts in Encore's software program to "falsely reflect that these were still active clients.''

"She then changed the selected vendors' information to reflect her own name and address,'' according to an agency statement. "Through manipulation of Encore's internal accounting software, Boyd was able to mask payments to herself from client accounts as vendor payments. Boyd kept the monthly amounts in line with other vendor payments, therefore hiding the embezzlement.''

Prosecutors said she forged her own boss' signature on checks written to herself.

"She also misled the company's clients about the checks she wrote to herself out of their accounts, including by describing transactions as being for operating expenses, rather than payment to her based on a bogus invoice,'' the U.S. Attorney's Office stated.

In its sentencing memorandum, the agency said the defendant "abused the trust of friends and coworkers," causing them to feel "blindsided and betrayed."  

Some of her colleagues quit.   

The fraud netted $931,077 in ill-gotten gains, prosecutors said.