A former local bookkeeper, Petreena Marie Clow, was sentenced last week to serve 90 days in jail and pay $117,600 in fines and restitution following her guilty pleas to seven felony counts.
Linn County Circuit Judge DeAnn L. Novotny sentenced Clow on May 23 to serve the time in Linn County Jail, along with 120 months (10 years) of probation, and the fines.
Clow, 59, pleaded guilty on April 11 to two counts of first-degree forgery, identity theft, aggravated identity theft, first-degree theft and two counts of first-degree aggravated theft.
Clow was arrested last June on 23 counts in connection with a fraud reported by the owner of a local logging company, according to police reports and court records, which identify that firm as Jeppsen Logging of Crawfordsville.
According to Sheriff’s Office reports, Clow had been bookkeeper for the business for approximately four years but had been fired after the business descended into financial difficulties and a new bookkeeper discovered that Clow had been writing numerous unauthorized checks on the business account, according to Undersheriff Jim Yon.
Detectives worked with the business’s new bookkeeper and were able to determine Clow had fraudulently written 51 unauthorized checks over a three year period totaling $107,325, Yon said.
The fraudulent activity took place between June 29, 2014 and Jan. 31, 2017.
The investigation revealed some of the checks were addressed to her and others were addressed to a different business she managed, he said. Clow was manager of the Crawfordsville Market during that period.
As a result of the investigation, Clow was arrested and charged with racketeering, five counts of first-degree theft, three counts of first-degree aggravated theft, seven counts of first-degree forgery, two counts of identity theft and five counts of aggravated identity theft.