May.21, 2010

She stole from her employer, masquerading as the boss to take out a six-figure loan in the boss' name.

She stole from her ex-husband's ailing grandfather, lifting nearly $300,000 from the elderly man's retirement account.

She stole the civil settlements given two teenage sex-abuse victims - and then forged a New Jersey judge's signature to try to get more.

So says a federal grand jury indictment that accuses Bonnie Sweeten - the Bucks County mother already doing time for a nationally publicized abduction hoax - of swiping more than $700,000 while working as a paralegal at a Feasterville law firm.

Sweeten, 39, was charged Thursday with a host of crimes, including wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, forgery, and identity theft.

The Feasterville woman is serving a nine-to-24-month term in the Bucks County prison for identity theft and filing false reports. Her attorney, Louis Busico, did not return a call seeking comment.

Sweeten was imprisoned in August for falsely reporting that she and her 9-year-old daughter had been kidnapped by two black men. She was arrested the next day at Walt Disney World, where she had flown with the child using a coworker's stolen identity.

Whenever Sweeten emerges from jail, "federal marshals will be waiting," said Patricia Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia.

The 18-page indictment says Sweeten spent the money on clothes, jewelry, mortgage payments, entertainment, medical expenses, and other items, but does not provide a breakdown.

She stole the money by forging signatures, diverting bank funds, and fabricating documents ranging from a U.S. passport, a power of attorney, and a driver's license to a court order, the indictment said.

Sweeten "went to great lengths to defraud people who trusted her," U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger said. "She betrayed family members, her employer, her friends, and the general public."

The thefts occurred from at least November 2005 through May 2009, when Sweeten staged her abduction hoax. The charade triggered a widespread Amber Alert, and outraged African Americans who felt smeared by her lie.

The Inquirer reported in August that Sweeten had fled because she couldn't repay $280,000 that she had stolen from the retirement account of Victor Biondino, the 92-year-old grandfather of her first husband. She ran because she knew a restitution check she had written to Biondino's loved ones - who were threatening to seek her arrest - was about to bounce.

Among the other alleged victims was Sweeten's longtime employer and former friend, lawyer Debbie Carlitz, whom Sweeten had blamed for the missing funds.

Carlitz, who has been sued by several former clients whose settlements were allegedly stolen by Sweeten, was not charged in the indictment. She has closed her practice and voluntarily surrendered her law license.

Carlitz "is very grateful for the thorough investigation and the diligent efforts of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in bringing this case," said her attorney, Ellen C. Brotman. "She will continue to do all that she can to cooperate with the government."

According to the indictment, Sweeten had nearly full control over the law firm's accounts, and was responsible for depositing settlement checks and disbursing them to clients. She had similar authority over the finances of the landscaping business of her then-husband, Richard L. Sweeten, who has since divorced her.

Bonnie Sweeten often stole from law clients by depositing their settlement checks directly into the landscaping account or by diverting the funds from the law firm's accounts into the landscaping account, the indictment says.

When clients asked about their settlements, Sweeten told them the payments had been delayed. Such was the case in 2007, when two Bucks County teens were awarded settlements of more than $100,000 in a New Jersey civil suit alleging sexual abuse by a family acquaintance.

The checks were supposed to be put into guardianship accounts until the girls turned 18, but Sweeten pocketed the money, the indictment said. In December 2008, she forged a $280,000 check from Biondino to repay the teens' mothers.

Even after the girls' money was placed into trust accounts, the indictment said, Sweeten tried to withdraw it. She forged a court order and the signature of the case judge - Ocean County Superior Court Judge Thomas O'Brien - in an effort to take money from one of the accounts at a Newtown bank, the indictment says.

Perhaps the most brazen scheme described in the charges involved a $100,000 mortgage taken out in Carlitz's name in 2006.

Sweeten forged Carlitz's signature onto the loan application documents, the indictment said. She then passed herself off as Carlitz at the settlement by presenting a passport that replaced Carlitz's picture with hers.

If convicted of all counts, Sweeten faces a two-year mandatory minimum sentence, with a theoretical maximum term of 375 years in prison and fines of up to $6.75 million.