BOSTON, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- A Marshfield woman was sentenced today in
federal court in connection with the theft of more than $200,000 from her
employer, The Children's Museum, as well as numerous fellow employees.
    United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Peter Zegarac, Acting
Postal Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, announced
that NICOLE N. BARTLETT, age 44, of 23 Old Stage Stop Village, Marshfield, was
sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel to 18 months in prison, to be
followed by 3 years of supervised release, and restitution in an amount to be
determined at a later date.  In January of this year BARTLETT pleaded guilty
to making, possessing, and uttering forged securities.
    At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, had the
case proceeded to trial, the Government's evidence would have proven that from
October 1998 through March 2003, BARTLETT stole more than $200,000 from her
employer, The Children's Museum, and numerous fellow employees of the museum
by devising and executing a theft scheme involving the Museum's payroll
system.  The overall scheme involved more than 440 unauthorized checks which
BARTLETT caused to be prepared, or prepared herself, all of which she
fraudulently endorsed and deposited into various personal bank accounts.
    On September 30, 1998, BARTLETT joined the accounting department of The
Children's Museum as its payroll supervisor.  Just 4 days later, BARTLETT
directed that the museum's payroll service prepare the first in a long line of
forged, and then stolen, museum checks which BARTLETT deposited into her
personal bank accounts.  The scheme continued until March 2003 when BARTLETT
was let go from the museum.
    As The Children's Museum's payroll supervisor, BARTLETT was responsible
for preparing the weekly check request to Automated Data Processing ("ADP"),
the company that prepared the museum's actual payroll checks.  Each week
BARTLETT electronically transmitted the payroll information to ADP and, within
a few days, ADP hand delivered the completed payroll checks to the museum by
courier.  The completed checks were delivered to BARTLETT who was responsible
for ensuring all of the requested checks were received and then distributing
those checks to the museum's employees.  In addition to the checks ADP
prepared, the museum kept a more traditional checkbook for its payroll account
which was used to handwrite checks to employees.
    BARTLETT's forgery/theft scheme was executed in at least three different
forms -- each of which is represented by different charges to which BARTLETT
pleaded guilty.  In its most common form, BARTLETT's scheme consisted of
making routine requests of ADP to generate bogus, duplicate checks made
payable to various museum employees, more than 200 over the duration of the
scheme.  The checks were "bogus" due to the fact that compensation was not due
and owing to the employee and were "duplicate" because they were in addition
to the true compensation the employee was already receiving for that pay
period.
    In a second form of the theft, BARTLETT again directed ADP to prepare
bogus checks, this time from funds that were set aside by the museum on behalf
of its employees as tax withholding funds.  Once these check were received,
BARTLETT followed the same routine, stealing the check and depositing it into
one of her personal bank accounts.  There were nearly 40 employees victimized
by this form of the theft -- for a total of approximately $30,000.
    In the third iteration of the fraud, BARTLETT used the museum's manual
payroll checkbook to handwrite checks made payable to various museum
employees.  Further, BARTLETT induced two authorized signatories on the
account to endorse the checks by providing them with falsified back-up
documentation.
    For much of the time the scheme was ongoing, BARTLETT used her personal
accounts at Rockland Federal Credit Union and Abington Savings Bank to deposit
the forged checks.  Starting in January 2000, BARTLETT involved her mother in
the scheme, using two joint accounts held in her and her mother's name at
Rockland Federal Credit Union as a depository for some of the stolen checks.
    The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.  It was
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Freniere, Chief of Sullivan's
Economic Crimes Unit.

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