Woman receives sentence in embezzlement case

ST. LOUIS -- A suburban St. Louis woman was ordered Thursday to spend two years in federal prison and repay $661,520 she embezzled from her employer.

Sheilah Smith, 47, of Chesterfield, pleaded guilty in April to two felony counts of mail fraud.

From December 1995 to August 2001, authorities said, Smith was a bookkeeper at Kemco Tool and Machine Co. in Fenton, which makes aeronautic parts for NASA and the military.

Smith wrote checks to herself and deposited them into her account or cashed them, U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender said. She altered the canceled checks to make it appear that they were issued to a vendor, he said.