From the Tribune staff reports
BIRMINGHAM – A federal judge sentenced a Shelby County woman for stealing more than a million dollars from the surgical practice where she had worked for fifteen years on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
According to the plea agreement, from 2005 until 2020, Latsis, a registered nurse, worked as office manager and administrator at Colon & Rectal Surgical Associates of Birmingham. Latsis handled bookkeeping and accounting functions for the practice, and she used that position of trust to steal money in a variety of ways. According to court documents, between 2013 and 2020 Latsis transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars from practice accounts to a PayPal account she controlled. She paid herself hundreds of thousands of dollars more than she was authorized to receive. She used practice funds to pay off her personal credit card bills and those of her spouse. She used credit card accounts in doctors’ names to pay personal expenses, including a “7 Night Northern European CityScapes” Royal Caribbean cruise for her and her spouse. And she used practice funds to pay her and her spouse’s personal expenses directly—car lease payments, life insurance premiums, and even an $8,000 home entertainment system from Best Buy.
In all, Latsis admitting to stealing more than $1.1 million from the practice during her tenure there.
The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J.B. Ward prosecuted the case.