Eden Prairie Woman Admits Embezzling $1.2M

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Prosecutors say a 42-year-old Eden Prairie woman has admitted embezzling more than $1.2 million while working for a Golden Valley property management company owned by her mother.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says Stephanie Castillo pleaded guilty Monday to theft by swindle. She's expected to receive a sentence of six years and eight months.

Castillo was accused of embezzling money from four companies, starting in 2009, while working at Balderson Management.

Freeman says half the money was spent on shopping and the rest funded her husband's effort to start a business in a Mexican resort city.

According to the charges, Castillo had access to clients' funds and drafted fake invoices for vendor services and applied some of the payments to Balderson's records.