Hamilton insurance brokerage CFO pleads guilty to embezzling $3.5M

A Hamilton woman has pleaded guilty of spending millions of dollars of her employer’s money when she was in charge of all their financial accounts.

Ruth Seguin appeared in court Wednesday morning where she pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $3.5 million from Dan Lawrie Insurance Brokerage in Hamilton when she worked as their chief financial advisor.

The court heard she used her position to funnel the money into her own accounts for personal use between September 2011 and December 2016, by using company cheques, online banking and credit cards.

It was the Bank of Montreal at Main and Bay where Seguin repeatedly went to deposit the cheques. Just before Christmas in 2016, someone from the bank contacted the brokerage because they began to get suspicious of her cashing cheques in the Dan Lawrie name, into her own accounts.

In March 2017, Hamilton police began their investigation and just over a year later, she was arrested and charged.

In the courtroom Seguin, who wore all black and was using a walker, plead guilty to the charge and then cried. Only her lawyer was with her in the courtroom.

Victim impact statements are being prepared for Seguin’s sentencing hearing which will take place in Hamilton in August.