Crystal Hendrix, 50, of Festus has been sentenced to three years in prison, fined $10,000 and ordered to repay $487,037.65 to a real estate company she admitted to embezzling from. She had worked for a St. Louis County Re/Max real estate agency, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig sentenced Hendrix on Aug. 11. Hendrix had pleaded guilty on Feb. 28 to embezzling the funds, court documents show.
According to her plea agreement, Hendrix handled payroll and had access to the company’s accounts as part of her duties at Re/Max. From January 2018 through December 2020, she sent more than 140 payments from the company’s accounts to her personal bank accounts, using the names of real estate agents to disguise the transactions as commission payments, the report said.
Hendrix used the stolen money to buy a vehicle and to buy meals at restaurants, according to the report.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Edward Dowd III and Gwendolyn Carroll prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.