A Crown Point woman is facing fraud charges for business theft

A Crown Point woman taken into custody Friday on multiple fraud charges is accused of taking nearly $81,000 from her former employer, a Valparaiso company, and checking herself into rehab for a gambling addiction, court documents show.

Sheri A. Steinhilber, who also has an address in West Lafayette, was charged with six counts of Level 6 fraud; one count of level 6 theft; and one count of Class A felony fraud. The amounts in question range from $95 to $47,046.12; the total amount is $80,818.12. The alleged crimes took place from May 2022 through October 2023.

The owners of D&K Electric contacted Indiana State Police on Nov. 27 after discovering discrepancies with financial accounts. The owners told police that Steinhilber worked as an office manager for the company, handling day-to-day finances and accounting, and that she was fired on November 7.

One of the owners confronted Steinhilber about the discrepancies “and Sheri vaguely apologized via text message for her actions,” according to the complaint. That owner told police, “during a conversation with family members… she had placed herself in a recovery facility due to a gambling addiction.”

One of the charges is for a custom golf cart for a family member, which is charged to the company’s credit card. A family member told investigators that “he recently discovered numerous frauds committed by Sheri due to gambling habits in which she victimized her employer, family members and himself,” according to the complaint.

The charges include dollar amounts for what Steinhilber allegedly spent at a casino between 2017 and 2023, except for 2022, when there was no record of gambling at the casino. The amounts range from $2,311.10 in 2023 to $214,47.88 in 2019.

According to the allegations, Steinhilber instructed D&K Electric customers to make a payment with her several times to receive a discount. The owners told police that Steinhilber “had set up several accounts such as PayPal and Squareup in the past and (the owner) told her not to use these accounts.”

The accounts had the owners’ business address, but the phone number and email address were traced back to Steinhilber, according to the indictment. Customers who paid through these accounts thought the money was going to D&K Electric and later found out the company had not received the money, the documents show.

An initial hearing has not yet been scheduled for Steinhilber and she was still in custody as of Monday afternoon, according to jail records.

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