Charleston woman pleads guilty to defrauding businesses of more than $537,000

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Federal prosecutors said a Charleston woman pleaded guilty to defrauding various businesses of more than $537,000.

Misty Brotherton-Tanner, 41, pleaded guilty in federal court to two felony counts of wire fraud and one felony count of money laundering, according to a news release Tuesday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of West Virginia.

Brotherton-Tanner faces up to 50 years in prison, a $750,000 fine and three years of supervised release when she is sentenced July 15. She has also agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $537,173.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Misty Brotherton-Tanner provided bookkeeping and accounting services for several local businesses in the Charleston area.

From at least 2014 until 2020, Misty Brotherton-Tanner devised a scheme to defraud these businesses, prosecutors said. She would electronically transfer money and move the electronic transactions between accounts in such a way so as to hide her fraud under the guise of legitimate transactions.

Brotherton-Tanner was not permitted to pay herself from these business accounts. Brotherton-Tanner’s fraud included listing herself as an employee for the various businesses, setting up fraudulent accounts in the name of fictional workers that Brotherton-Tanner would then add to the business accounting software, and even misrepresenting that she had paid state and federal taxes for the business when she had not done so.

All throughout the scheme, Brotherton-Tanner moved the transferred money into her personal checking accounts.

Prosecutors said she also stole money on behalf of and at the request of her mother, Lois Brotherton, who also has entered a guilty plea in federal court for her role in the scheme. Lois Brotherton will be sentenced April 28.