U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey has sentenced Angelique Patterson, a former assistant general manager of a hotel in Richmond Heights, Missouri, to 39 months in prison for multiple fraud offenses. Patterson is also required to repay $226,882.
The court found that from March to October 2023, Patterson manipulated the hotel's reservation system by altering records of customers who paid with cash or credit cards. She retroactively changed these reservations to falsely indicate that customers used loyalty rewards points for their stays. Subsequently, she added her own credit or debit card information into the system and had the payments refunded to herself.
On October 4, 2023, while not on duty, Patterson attempted to use the hotel's desk computer and a coworker's credentials to fraudulently refund herself an additional $61,998.
In another scheme from August through September 2021, Patterson used hotel customers' credit card information to make fake charges via her entertainment company, Angel Entertains LLC. Through this method, she obtained or attempted to obtain $109,000.
Patterson pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in September to five counts of wire fraud.
The FBI conducted the investigation into the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gwen Carroll and Cort VanOstran prosecuted it.