Bookkeeper embezzled $700,000 from employers, including Denny’s restaurants, feds say

A former bookkeeper of a Denny’s franchisee was accused of stealing about $352,000 from its restaurants before she was fired, then embezzling another $350,000 from her next employer.

Kimberly Sue Peterson-Janovec, 59, was convicted by a federal grand jury in Minnesota on 24 counts of fraud, aggravated identity theft and tax crimes, according to a Feb. 22 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. This conviction follows a similar 1998 conviction, in which Peterson-Janovec was accused of embezzling $950,000 from a different employer.

“Over the course of several years, Ms. Peterson-Janovec deliberately abused her professional position to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employers,” Acting U.S. Attorney Charles J. Kovats said in the news release. “With this guilty verdict, Ms. Peterson-Janovec has been held accountable for her actions. I applaud the prosecutors and investigators for skillfully unraveling this years-long fraud scheme and achieving a successful outcome.”

The defense attorney representing Peterson-Janovec did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

In her most recent conviction, authorities say Peterson-Janovec of Kenyon was first working as the director of operations for M15, Inc., a Denny’s franchisee with eight restaurant franchises in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The owners live in California.

Starting around 2014, she had oversight of the M15’s payroll, cash deposits, vendor billing and other financial responsibilities, according to an indictment filed in court. In that role, from about April 2014 to July 2019, officials say the bookkeeper embezzled funds from Denny’s and M15’s Twin Cities-area restaurants by “generating and submitting knowingly false requests for vendor payments and then diverting those payments for her own use and benefit.”

Some of those payments included those sent to a painting company founded by Peterson-Janovec’s daughter, which never actually provided services to Denny’s or its franchise, according to court records. Another repair vendor she sent payments to hadn’t done work for Denny’s since 2012.

Peterson-Janovec sent the vendor payments to addresses where she had access to collect the money, officials say.

In addition to those false payments, records say she also manipulated her payroll submissions to receive unauthorized compensation.

Authorities say Peterson-Janovec received about “$336,000 in bogus vendor payments and approximately $16,000 in manipulated payroll payments to which she knew she was not entitled.”

She used that money to buy jewelry, concert tickets, clothes and to fund a down payment on her home, according to court records.

MI5 “discovered aspects of Peterson-Janovec’s fraud” and terminated her, according to the news release.

After she was fired, officials say Peterson-Janovec lied about her previous work experience and got another bookkeeping job in 2020 with a family-owned construction business in Rochester.

“Peterson-Janovec started as its bookkeeper, earned (the company’s) trust, and eventually was promoted to its general manager,” the news release says. “Peterson-Janovec used her position to devise and execute a similar fraud scheme.”

With access to its financial records, officials say she made fraudulent vendor payments and obtained another $350,000 in about 18 months.

As part of the fraud scheme, she committed tax crimes that led to $160,000 in unpaid taxes to the government, authorities said.

Peterson-Janovec has not yet been sentenced, and a date had not been scheduled as of Feb. 22.

This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Bookkeeper embezzled $700,000 from employers, including Denny’s restaurants, feds say."