Jennifer L. Bengston Cook, 56, of Greer, South Carolina, United States worked for SSRC Inc. in Duncan, South Carolina as a part-time bookkeeper for more than 10 years. The business is a manufacturing company established in 1987.
SSRC manufactures theatrical distribution products to schools, performing arts centers, worship centers, broadcast studios, hotels and casinos throughout the U.S. The company’s president Aaron Clark is an alumnus of Beachwood High School in Beachwood, Ohio, USA and Columbus State Community College in Columbus, Ohio.
Jennifer Cook
From about December 2014 through June 2024, Cook defrauded SSRC of more than $1.6 million. While employed by the company, she wrote checks to herself from its bank accounts without permission and deposited them into her personal bank account.
Cook paid her personal credit card bills using the company’s bank account. In an attempt to cover up her theft, she listed the checks as void in the company’s ledger and listed them as void, paid to other employees or paid to vendors in QuickBooks.
On the memo line, Cook wrote that it was a reimbursement on some checks and it was for payroll and listed the payroll dates on other checks. She paid herself three payroll checks for the same pay period in some instances.
While Cook was on vacation, her supervisor needed to find a record of a vendor payment. The supervisor looked into the company’s financial records and detected the theft.
After the discovery, Cook’s employment was terminated. The part-time bookkeeper was charged with multiple counts of wire fraud in federal court.
Representing by Christopher Shannon Leonard and Joshua Snow Kendrick, Cook pleaded guilty to wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Jacquelin D. Austin sentenced Cook to 36 months in federal prison and ordered the Greer woman to pay $2,276,830.09 in restitution.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation‘s field office in Columbia, South Carolina. The prosecution was handler by assistant U.S. attorney Bill Watkins.
CONAN Daily 