NAPLES, Fla. — The Finance Manager of Fun Time Early Childhood Academy is arrested after nearly $80,000 of the Academy's losses were reported.
On November 19, 2019, Naples Police Department received a complaint from the Academy that a total of almost $80,000 from September 2018 to June 2019 were gone.
As NPD conducted the investigation, it was discovered that the Finance Manager of the academy, Heather Ortiz, was using her position to take $79,408 of the Academy’s funds for herself to personally use.
Naples PD says that she completed this by using fraudulent PayPal accounts that were linked to the Academy’s credit cards to pay a PayPal company that was registered in her name for $68,540.31.
The funds for the company were then sent to Ortiz’s personal Wells Fargo account in the amount of $66,177,09 after all the fees. Ortiz transferred $4,060.07 of the Academy’s donation PayPal account to her personal account.
Ortiz used the Academy’s credit cards for her own purchases at merchants for $6,807.66
According to Naples PD, this was a ‘lengthy, complex investigation' that culminated with a warrant request that was submitted in February of 2022.
On June 22, 2022, Ortiz was arrested for three counts of criminal use of personal identification information and grand theft, and communication fraud.
