ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 12, 1997 TAG: 9702120093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
Annis Jane Hobratschk rolled up to her apartment near Houston one day in 1995 and saw police waiting to arrest her for embezzling from her brother's company, so she whipped her car into a U-turn that eventually brought her to Botetourt County.
By the time she pulled into Fincastle and got a job with Groggins Plastics Inc. that August, she was known as Jenna Drum - the fifteenth alias she had used in her 39 years.
The latest name came from the birth certificate and Social Security card of the 10-year-old daughter of a man who had been her pen pal when she was in prison, Sgt. Larry Carr of the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office testified in Botetourt Circuit Court on Tuesday.
With the bogus name and a bogus resume boasting a degree in accounting from the University of California at Berkeley, the woman with a ninth-grade education got hired as a bookkeeper at the Groggins plant, Carr said.
Tuesday, Hobratschk pleaded guilty to 20 charges of forgery and seven counts of embezzling from Groggins. In less than a year, she had embezzled at least $130,000 from Groggins, Carr learned. She spent the better part of it - at least $50,000 - on jewelry, she told Carr.
As part of a plea agreement, Botetourt Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom agreed to drop 20 charges of uttering forged checks and seven charges of embezzlement.
She faces 340 years in prison, but Branscom said state guidelines recommend something closer to six years. She is on parole in Texas after her release from prison on previous embezzlement charges, and could wind up serving more time there. She also was indicted there on more embezzling charges in September, which is why the police had been waiting for her in Houston, Branscom said.
Phillip Groggins, president of the Fincastle company that makes residential mailboxes and plastic spools for industrial use, said he became suspicious of his new accountant in July, because her accounting ability didn't live up to the degree she said she had.
A little digging revealed she was providing insurance for her daughter in Texas without deducting it from her paycheck, Groggins testified, and she claimed eight dependents on her tax forms when she had only one.
Hobratschk's biggest take, however, came from payroll checks she wrote to workers who had long since been fired or had quit, and from money intended to pay federal payroll withholding taxes.
Groggins signed many of the fake paychecks, he testified. Hobratschk would bring him checks for all 80 or more employees of the company and tell him they had to be signed in a hurry. With so many employees, he said, it was hard to keep track of all the names on the checks.
Each Thursday, Groggins said, Hobratschk was responsible for depositing a check made out to NationsBank to cover Social Security tax on the payroll. But she apparently used those checks to purchase cashier's checks, which she would cash at other banks.
When deputies went to arrest Hobratschk, she was found woozy from a pill overdose, Carr testified. She was hospitalized and then treated at a psychiatric center. When she got out, Carr said, she gave a complete statement.
The company, meanwhile, is considered by the Internal Revenue Service to be a delinquent taxpayer because the payroll taxes never made it to the bank, Groggins testified.
He said his insurance paid him $100,000, but that is the maximum it can pay.
"We're still going through the books," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB