Mobile woman sentenced to 2½ years for embezzling more than $265,000

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A woman who admitted to embezzling more than $276,000 will go to prison for 2½ years, a federal judge decided Monday.

Elisabeth Dawn Williams, of Mobile, pleaded guilty in May to unauthorized use of business purchase cards and mail fraud.

Williams was working from July 2016 to October 2018 for John G. Walton Construction Co. She admitted to using business purchase cards to make dozens of personal items. The retailers ranged from Alabama Power to the Beau Rivage to City Donut. Her then-boyfriend conducted 37 of the transactions for $29,988, using the purchase card or information from the card that she provided.

Williams has a criminal record. She pleaded guilty in 2004 in Dallas County to defrauding American Apparel in Selma out of almost $110,000. At the time, she was known as Elisabeth Dawn Chance Cox.

This is not the first time Williams has been in trouble. Law enforcement authorities in Dallas County previously arrested her under the name Elisabeth Dawn Chance Cox and accused her of defrauding. She pleaded guilty in that case in 2004 and served 18 months in prison plus three years’ probation.

Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock ordered that Williams be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for three years after her prison term and pay back the $276,610 she embezzled at a rate of $100 a month.

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