GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – An Ada woman has been sentenced to 36 months in prison for defrauding a manufacturing company where she was the CEO.
Darci Shillington will also have two years of supervision after her release and have to pay nearly $400,000 in restitution for her crime.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Grand Rapids says that Shillington was CEO of Hilco Technologies, which is headquartered off of Patterson near the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. The company specializes in plastics fabrication.
Shillington defrauded the company of almost $1.4 million between June and September 2017, according to the U.S. Attorney, to buy and furnish a new home in Ada. She was making $175,000 per year at Hilco. Part of her fraud included forging a letter from Hilco’s Board of Directors saying she had large cash reserves to make a down payment on the home.
Hilco was left short of cash to pay suppliers and those suppliers contacted other representatives at the company to complain. The board contacted the FBI in September 2017.
“This crime involved a business, but it was really about hurting people,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge in a press release. “Darci Shillington earned a salary that most people would be thrilled to have; but she just had to have more. She took advantage of suppliers, jeopardized the company’s stability, and in turn put the jobs of the company employees at risk.”
Shillington is free on bond until the designation of her prison facility.
