An ex-finance manager from Weyerhaeuser who stole over $4.5 million from the timber business was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly five years in prison.
Susan Tranberg of Eugene also was sentenced on Wednesday to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay over $5.3 million in restitution to the company, the Crime Victims Fund and to the IRS, Acting U.S. Attorney Scott Erik Asphaug said.
Starting as early as June 2004 and until 2019, Tranberg defrauded Weyerhaeuser out of over $4.5 million by submitting fraudulent invoices for payment to a fake vendor she created, according to court documents.
Tranberg had worked for Weyerhaeuser in Springfield for more than 40 years. A financial analysis determined most of the money was used to fund expensive dinners, vacations, wedding expenses and shopping sprees, Asphaug said.
In 2020, Tranberg was charged with mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and tax evasion. She pleaded guilty to all three charges, according to Asphaug.
Tranberg first created a fake timber contract between the company and a vendor and over the next 10 years, she requested cashier’s checks and kept the money, according to court documents.
In 2014, Weyerhaeuser transitioned to a new payment processing system, so Tranberg set up a new fake vendor account in order to steal money, and attached a letter purportedly from her mother including forged documents, Asphaug said. Tranberg’s mother had been dead for five years at the time.