Ex-Pyrol Shield employee gets 46-month prison sentence

Contributed By: The 411 News

Hammond – Lorraine Duchscher, 50 years old, of Crown Point, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon, Friday, after pleading guilty to three counts of wire fraud.

Duchscher was sentenced to 46 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $490,958.35 in restitution to her former employer, Pyro Shield, an industrial manufacturer in Crown Point.

According to documents in the case, Duchscher worked as an office manager for Pyro Shield between March 2017 and December 2019. In this capacity, she had unsupervised access to the company’s bank account, financial records and payroll information.

From the beginning of her employment in March 2017, the affidavit states, Duchscher "devised and participated in a scheme to defraud her employer by writing unauthorized Pyro Shield checks to herself and another individual and by falsifying the payroll data that she submitted to the company's payroll processing service."

For almost three years, Duchscher made regular adjustments to her paychecks and gave herself additional pay to which she was not entitled. She also wrote over 100 unauthorized business checks to herself and another employee, which were cashed at local banks and currency exchanges.

Over the course of the scheme, Duchscher defrauded the company out of $490,958.35; money she used to fund her lavish lifestyle which included the purchase of airline tickets, rental cars, vacation home rentals, entertainment, and cosmetic procedures, among other things.

Duchscher was initially charged in September 2020. During 2021 and 2022, her defense claimed the fraud was brought on by mental illness.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Chang and Steven J. Lupa.

Story Posted:01/07/2024