THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS STOLEN FROM HOMER GLEN LANDSCAPING COMPANY - FORMER EMPLOYEE ARRESTED
The Will County Sheriff's Office is announcing the arrest of Lynda K. Bibian, age 32, of Joliet. In November 2018, deputies were called to Jimenez Landscaping located in Homer Glen where they spoke with the owners who stated that they believed a former employee, Bibian, had fraudulently used a company credit card for her personal use and also wrote several unauthorized checks. Bibian was hired in May of 2017 as an assistant to the office manager and through the year was given additional responsibilities associated with the financial end of the company.
The owners reported that while attempting to cancel the credit card in October 2018 they realized hundreds of unknown charges had been made on it. The owners stated that the credit card was originally issued to one of the them and a family member who had worked at the company before passing away. Upon contacting the credit company, the owners learned that from October 2017 thru October 2018 there were over 357 itemized charges on the account. The company believed the charges were made by the owner or the family member; which is now believed that Bibian took over the deceased family member's identity.
The detailed transaction report revealed charges in excess of $44,000 from multiple gas stations, restaurants, rent payments, department stores, Amazon, hair and nail salons, airline tickets, uber rides, limousine services, Ticketmaster, and other various businesses. Bibian was fired from the company on October 8, 2018.
Through a systematic investigation Will County Sheriff's detectives, working with the owners, also discovered that Bibian had fraudulently increased her hourly pay rate on more than one occasion, had written thousands of dollars in unauthorized checks to herself, and wrote thousands of dollars from the Jimenez Landscaping to pay for personal expenses such as dermatology and medical bills. Initial reports indicate those totals in excess of $54,000. The investigation remains open.
Yesterday, April 4th, Sheriff's detectives brought Lynda Bibian in for questioning. Bibian made statements implicating herself. She also acknowledged having a history of committing financial crimes in the past. She was arrested and charged with Theft, Identity Theft, Aggravated Identity Theft/over age 60 and two counts of Forgery. Additional charges are expected. Her bond was set at $75,000 (10% to apply).