A 57-year old Waterloo woman has been sentenced to over 2 years in federal prison. Teresa Chiappone had embezzled over $250,000 from a small business in Cedar Falls she worked for between 2014 and 2022. She was employed as the office manager there. Prosecutors say between 2020 and 2022, she wrote over $160,000 in unauthorized checks drawn on the business’s bank account for her personal use. She’d intercepted at least $50,000 in bank deposits and made unauthorized credit card charges of at least $3,000. They add that she had gambled away much of the business’ money at Iowa casinos, resulting in the company having to take out a loan to cover its losses. In addition to her prison sentence, she must pay over $255,000 in restitution to the business. Â
