Virginia Beach accountant receives 4 years in prison for fraud worth over $1 million

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia – A Virginia Beach accountant will serve a four-year prison sentence after federal prosecutors say she embezzled a client’s money and illegally spent COVID-19 relief funds.

On Thursday, a judge sentenced 45-year-old Maria Gene Reich on two counts of wire fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Court documents show that Reich ran a Virginia Beach firm called On Call Accountants, which provided bookkeeping, accounting and payroll services for small businesses.

In one case, she was convicted of abusing her access to a company's finances to pay her company more than agreed and to cover personal expenses. Over the course of about four years, federal prosecutors say, she defrauded the local family business of more than a million dollars.

Reich was also convicted of using COVID-19 relief funds she received from the federal government for her business for various personal expenses. In total, prosecutors said, she illegally spent $249,102 of the loan on her small business.