SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — On Friday, a woman was sentenced after pleading guilty to wire fraud for embezzling nearly $1.4 million from her Utah-based employer through thousands of prepaid gift cards.
According to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office District of Utah, Benedicta Okunlola, 32, pleaded guilty to wire fraud on Nov. 18, 2025. On Friday, she was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, and she was also ordered to pay $1,398,014 in restitution.
Okunlola worked for a Utah based lending services business, and between 2020 and 2025, she used her position as Merchant Growth Specialist to issue 2,343 prepaid gift cards to herself. She used those gift cards for herself, her online art business, and family members.
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As part of her job, she had access to the company gift card for marketing purposes, and she was the only employee who purchased gift cards to offer incentives to commercial customers. She reportedly kept the value of the gift cards below the amount that would require another employee to approve the purchase, which is how she avoided detection by the company…