MIAMI – An accountant employed by a high-end furniture store on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard was apprehended by the police on Tuesday for embezzling over half a million dollars from the business.
According to law enforcement officials, Anette M. Martinez, a 59-year-old resident of southwest Miami-Dade, was hired as an accountant at Morada Haute Furniture in January 2021. The furniture company, which operates internationally, was previously situated at 3701 Biscayne Blvd. and has since relocated to 2480 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood.
Based on an arrest report, the company’s owner became suspicious when he noticed a series of wire transfers totaling $526,800 to banks in Indonesia and Poland in May and early June 2021. This raised concerns since the company’s only international suppliers are based in Italy.
Police stated that Martinez informed the owner that she had received the invoices and made the payments without seeking his approval, despite the fact that he had previously instructed her to obtain his authorization for all transactions.
The third-party payment processor attempted to contact the owner of Morada Haute Furniture to verify the transactions, but Martinez assured the company that they were legitimate and instructed them to proceed with the payments.
During an interview with Miami police detectives, Martinez denied any wrongdoing, as stated in the arrest report. She is now facing three charges of grand theft and has been released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after posting a $10,000 bond.
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