Crystal Hendrix, 49, of Festus has pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud. She admitted to stealing $483,037 from a St. Louis County Re/Max real estate agency, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
Hendrix pleaded guilty to the federal charges on Feb. 28. As part of her plea agreement, she agreed to forfeit money and property equal to the amount of the fraud and will be ordered to repay the money when she is sentenced, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Hendrix is scheduled to be sentenced on June 1 by Judge Audrey G. Fleissig U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Along with being ordered to forfeit money and property and repay the stolen funds, she is facing up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000, court documents show.
According to the 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 names of the real estate agents to disguise the transactions as commission payments, the agreement said.
Hendrix used the stolen money to buy a vehicle and to buy meals at restaurants, the guilty plea said.
Assistant U.S. attorney Edward Dowd III is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.