SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio woman was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 160 months in prison for embezzling from several employers and their clients, announced U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R. Simmons.
According to court documents, during three separate periods between June 2021 and February 2025, Monica Marie Padilla, 49, worked as a bookkeeper for multiple businesses. As bookkeeper, Padilla had access to bank and credit accounts. At each of the three employers, Padilla used various methods to fraudulently steal funds from the accounts. With the stolen money, Padilla remodeled her home, purchased Disney merchandise, bought hundreds of DoorDash orders, and funded her daughter’s cheerleading activities along with a more than $5,700 trip to California.
Padilla was first charged in a 30-count indictment on Aug. 16, 2023, then in an 18-count superseding indictment on Feb. 19, 2025, both of which included more than a dozen wire fraud counts. While on pretrial release after the February 2025 superseding indictment, Padilla violated her bond conditions, lied to pretrial services, and obtained employment as a remote bookkeeper for an accounting firm, where she again defrauded her employer and her employer’s clients. Throughout Padilla’s multi-year criminal scheme, she defrauded three separate businesses for a total loss of at least $595,585.41.
On Aug. 13, 2025, Padilla was named in a five-count information, which charged her with just three wire fraud charges, one mail fraud charge, and one money laundering charge. She pleaded guilty to all five of those counts on Aug. 20, 2025.
“An embezzling bookkeeper can do incalculable harm not just to the victimized businesses but to the lives of many innocent people. The monetary harm is usually just the tip of the iceberg in these types of cases,” said U.S. Attorney Simmons. “With numerous prior convictions, Monica Padilla acted as a financial predator. Thanks to FBI and our justice system, we were able to tame this particular predator as she will be spending the next thirteen-plus years behind bars.”
“For several years, Monica Padilla betrayed the trust of her employers and stole company funds at numerous businesses, all for her own personal gain,” said FBI San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Daniel Faith. “Her spending spree with the stolen money of her victims has finally come to an end and now she will face justice.”
The FBI investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Harris prosecuted the case.