Kingman woman charged with embezzling $250,000 from Nucor Steel

UPDATED 05/01/2020: TO CORRECT HEADLINE

KINGMAN – Nucor Steel believes an employee stole more than one-quarter million dollars in a company check conversion, personal deposit scheme. A multiple month investigation led to Wednesday’s arrest of Christy AnnLopez, 42, Kingman.

A Mohave County sheriff’s office investigation was initiated in late January after company officials requested assistance regarding suspected internal theft.

“Detectives were contacted by Nucor Steel in reference to an employee that they believed had potentially embezzled $254,361 by fraudulently cashing checks from the business into their personal checking account,” said sheriff’s spokeswoman Anita Mortensen. “The company had conducted an audit in November of 2019 and observed inconsistencies with checks issued from the company and observed Lopez had endorsed the questionable checks.”

Mortensen said an examination of her bank account revealed that deposits were consistent with fraudulent check dates provided by the company. “Detectives received copies of the checks deposited into Lopez’s account and were able to match all of the company’s fraudulent checks by date and check numbers.”

Lopez was booked into the Mohave County Adult Detention Center on theft, fraud and forgery charges.

• Dave Hawkins