A 39-year-old former Weld County oil company employee was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday for stealing company funds and using it buy land in Nebraska and oil field services equipment.
Leila Bennett was sentenced by Weld County District Judge Marcelo Kopcow after pleading guilty to one count of violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, a Class 2 felony.
Prosecutors say Bennett worked for Whiting Petroleum and Oil through a third-party contractor as procurement and materials supervisor at Whiting’s Redtail pipeline site near Raymer in Weld County.
Bennett stole “hundreds of thousands of dollars” between October 2014 and February 2015, while acting as Whiting’s agent at the Redtail site, prosecutors said. Bennett created fake invoices on behalf of her own company, A&H Services, LLC.
Bennett then submitted those invoices for payment through Whiting’s invoice payment software. Bennett used some of those stolen funds to buy land in Nebraska and equipment.
She also employed someone in Grand Junction to pose as the office for A&H Services, LLC, which she previously incorporated with the Colorado Secretary of State, prosecutors said.
Whiting employees — who initially were not aware of Bennett’s connection to A&H Services — grew suspicious of Bennett’s invoices when they appeared substantially similar to legitimate invoices submitted by another vendor, said prosecutors.
As part of her sentence, Bennett will pay restitution to Whiting in an amount to be determined by Judge Kopcow.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907, mwhaley@denverpost.com or @montewhaley
