Woman accused in Black & Veatch embezzment investigated in $1.2 million theft from Garmin

A Lee’s Summit woman once entrusted with handling payrolls for two of the area’s largest private employers is the subject of a $1.2 million embezzlement investigation by the FBI.

Earlier this month, Patricia Webb was charged in U.S. District Court in Kansas City with embezzling more than $300,000 from Black & Veatch. Webb worked as global payroll manager at the Overland Park-based engineering firm until March 4, when she was suspended without pay.

Recently filed federal court documents allege that Webb also is being investigated for a $1.2 million embezzlement from Olathe-based Garmin International, where she previously worked as a payroll team manager.

In the documents, federal prosecutors in Kansas City allege that while the FBI was looking into Webb’s financial activities at Black & Veatch, they found fraudulent activity involving Garmin, a maker of satellite-based fitness and navigation products.

The documents list money allegedly spent by Webb, including more than $400,000 at casinos during the time she worked for Garmin, and $106,000 spent at casinos while she worked at Black & Veatch.

A Garmin spokesman said Monday that the company was cooperating in the investigation, but he said he could not comment on a pending legal matter.

P.J. O’Connor, Webb’s attorney in the Black & Veatch case, declined to comment Monday.

Webb, 43, has not been charged in the Garmin case, but officials say that case is still under investigation.

Federal prosecutors detailed the allegations involving Garmin in court documents they filed seeking to seize money and property that they say was illegally obtained.

According to the documents:

The investigation of Webb began earlier this year, when officials with Commerce Bank notified Black & Veatch of suspicious financial transactions involving some of its bank accounts.

The FBI was contacted, and an analysis of bank records determined that between July 2015 and February, Webb allegedly made six unauthorized transfers into the account of a business she had previously established.

“To conceal her fraud, Webb manipulated the direct deposit information of BV (Black & Veatch) clients, who were either based overseas or deceased, to funnel BV funds into (her business bank account),” an FBI agent wrote.

After one $92,000 wire transfer, Black & Veatch officials questioned Webb about the transaction. She allegedly told them that an overseas client had wanted his final severance payment to be deposited directly into his wife’s business account. In actuality, it was Webb’s business account.

Webb is accused of making five other transfers from the account of a deceased Black & Veatch client after that.

Those same bank records showed that between February 2012 and May 2014, while Webb worked at Garmin, there were 16 unauthorized transfers from a Garmin account to Webb’s business account, according to the federal court documents.

Those transfers totaled more than $1.2 million, according to the documents.

Some of those transactions involved moving expenses of current and former Garmin employees. Webb allegedly altered W-2 information for those employees and company records to “mask” the embezzlement and prevent Garmin officials from detecting it, according to the documents.

The documents show that money from Webb’s account was used to pay for a variety of personal expenses, including $440,000 at casinos during the time she worked at Garmin.

Other expenditures listed in the documents include a $237,000 home purchase, $29,000 for travel expenses and $18,000 spent at restaurants.

Prosecutors seek to forfeit that Lee’s Summit home to the government. They also seek the forfeiture of a 2013 Chrysler 300 and more than $75,000 from two bank accounts.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 8:46 AM with the headline "Woman accused in Black & Veatch embezzment investigated in $1.2 million theft from Garmin."