FARGO (KVRR-KFGO) – A Fargo woman has been charged with theft after being accused of stealing over $500,000 worth of merchandise from her Fargo employer.
Court records say officers were first called after the owner of a business that sells collectible banknotes reported $250,000 worth of the bills were missing from his inventory. The bills are sold at trade shows and in online auctions.
The owner told officers he suspected a former employee, Leymah Lopai, took the bills while she was working for him until May of this year and had access to the inventory.
After the owner confronted Lopai, she admitted she took some of the bills and was selling them through a different Ebay account. Lopai returned some of the bills and said that was all she had, but the owner found more stolen bills listed online.
Investigators interviewed Lopai and searched her home where they found stolen bills and coins with an estimated value over a half-million dollars.
The owner estimates that stolen inventory already sold is worth an additional $100,000.
