Woman Guilty For Stealing Thousands from Waltham Company

A Worcester woman has pleaded guilty to stealing almost $50,000 from a Waltham company at which she worked, according to the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office.

Heather Christianson, 26, of Worcester, pleaded guilty during a hearing at Middlesex Superior Court on Nov. 5 to charges that she bilked her employer Autodesk Inc., using three seperate schemes, according to the DA's office. She will be sentenced on Nov. 27.

Christianson worked as en executive assistant at the Waltham company from October 2007 to September 2011 when the company discovered she was submitting unusally high amounts of expenses, according to the DA's office. 

Autodesk investigated the incident and discovered three seperate schemes that allowed Christianson to steal the money, according to the DA's office. In one scheme, Christianson billed Autodesk's higher education employee benefit program for college courses she did not take, including an ethics course. 

The second scheme allowed Christianson to steal through the expense reimbursement system, according to the DA's office. She saved receipts from real work expenses that had already been paid but claimed she had paid for them out of her own comapny. Essentailly, the company was double billed. 

Christianson also used a company credit card for personal expenses including a camera and gift cards for herself and relatives, according to the DA's office. 

Christianson was fired from her job on Sept. 7, 2011 after she admitted to stealing from the company and was later indicted by a grand jury.