SF Giants' Payroll Manager Charged with Embezzling Player Money

Robin O'Connor from Facebook

Robin O'Connor told me through Facebook today, "Dan, I understand you have a job to do, and I really want to speak out about this, but I am not allowed to do this as part of an agreement that I have at the moment. I have called my attorney to see if I can talk to you because I don't believe you have the facts. I am not sure if there is a way for you to hold off on this story until I can give my side of this because as I am sure that you have come to realize in your profession, all is not always as it appears."

I explained to Robin that I had to run the story, and there are many detailed accusations in the Criminal Complaint filed in US District Court.

An affidavit from an FBI Special Agent says O'Connor embezzled $1,513,836.28 between June 2010 and June 2011.  As a payroll manager for the team, she was allowed to take a Giants' laptop home -- it had a payroll program on it.  O'Connor worked with players' direct deposits and their expenses.

The affidavit says O'Connor admitted forging a letter in the name of the Giants' HR Manager to the Bank of America.  She was trying to get a loan to purchase a home in San Diego.  The letter explained two large deposits in O'Connor's account: "Because of her outstanding contributions to our Major League Baseball team and Front Office during the 2010 season that assisted us in accomplishing our goal of winning the 2010 World Series, she was given two additional payments of compensation in May 2011. The two additional payment amounts were $100,090.71 and $200,348.89."  Not bad bonuses for an employee with an $80,000 a year salary.  The bank sent the letter to the Giants for confirmation, and it all unravelled.

According to the affidavit, the Giants were able to trace those two payments as coming from player accounts.  The $200,348.89 was "redirected from a Giants' employee's direct deposit payment to O'Connor's Wells Fargo account on or about May 13, 2011."  The $100,090.71 was "a purported tax adjustment to a second Giants' employee's salary that was redirected on or about May 13, 2011 to O'Connor's Wells Fargo account."  

The affidavit says O'Connor, when confronted, admitted taking a total of $608,562.09 and wired the money back to the organization.  In a subsequent review, the Giants' financial staff found another $900,000 and called the feds.

The Giants declined an interview today and would not reveal which players had their accounts inappropriately accessed.  Here's the statement the Giants' spokeswoman sent me today:

"The Giants discovered evidence of possible misconduct by one of our employees which resulted in the employee's dismissal.  We immediately notified the United States Attorney's office who is now handling the matter.  The United States Attorney's Office has requested that we refrain from providing additional details at this time to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation."
 

Comments

[Internet Filter Mac]

Wow. Something is going to happen!

[Jade Jewellery]

Awesome post, I’m a big believer in placing comments on forums to help the blog editors know that they have created something of worth to the internet!

[dgwhalen]

If she goes to jail, then so should Aaron Rowand, Cody Ross, Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell. They haven't earned a dime this year.

[Chad]

You pay someone $80000 a year to handle Payroll payments of millions every year to the player and they would want their piece of the pie. That is what happen when athletes and other executive salaries become so out of whack with the rest of crowd. She violated the law and should go to jail but after that someone has to look into the pay scale at the GIANTS.

[tony camero]

chad you are an idiot

[Ground Pounder]

dgwhalen, really?

So it's the players and executives fault for making themselves marketable in their respective professions. And that makes it OK to loot their bank accounts because some feel they make too much money.

Maybe if Mrs. O'Connor wanted to make a 100k or 1M per year, she should have chosen a different profession. Don't you think dgwhalen?

And someone needs to "look" into the pay scale of the Giants. Give me a break.

If you don't like the Giants pay scale then convince enough people to quit going to the games for starters. Maybe then the players will have a few thousand taken away due to lost ticket revenue.

[Sara Miles]

She is not the first to embezzle funds and won't be the last! It is unfortunate but some individuals are born as sociopaths, murders and thieves...I am certain she has always been a thief and will never rid herself of that desire. She is the friend you'd have over in grade school and something would always disappear. She gets a thrill out of it and has no control over her actions. Maybe doing some time in the Big House will do her some good but I doubt it! Sad but true!

[momo]

oh my only 80k to work from home boohoo. I hope she doesn't find a way to work from the slammer.

[Erik]

sociopath - probably
Her facebook post sounds like a politicians response, she's deffinately more worried about keeping up appearances over actually having any real integrity

idiot - deffinately
She was caught after forging a letter from her employer to get a mortgage!! WTF- can't she just pay cash for any house with 1.5m in the bank.

deserves better - sadly yes
When you your a manager at one of top grossing employers (MLB) in San Francisco (ultra premium area) you should be able to afford a decent house in the city and not American Canyon.

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idiot - deffinately
She was caught after forging a letter from her employer to get a mortgage!! WTF- can't she just pay cash for any house with 1.5m in the bank.

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