OAK HILL, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A Fayette County woman has been charged and arrested on embezzlement charges.
The Oak Hill Police Department tells Lootpress that Beth Renee Friebel, 42, of Oak Hill, WV, was charged with embezzlement after allegedly stealing over 27,000 dollars from a business she worked for.
Detectives were contacted by the owners of Pinnacle Chiropractic, who say they had fired Friebel after they claimed she was stealing money from them. The owners weren’t sure how much Friebel had stolen but had caught her. They were able to provide text messages and recordings of Friebel allegedly confessing to embezzling. Another employee had made a mistake on a day sheet, and when she went back to fix it, she noticed that it had been completely changed. The owners claim that they started documenting the daily sheet for some time and noticed it was being altered. Friebel was allegedly responsible for the deposits from the office.
The owners provided detectives with deposit books, bank statements, day sheets, and other items. The company switched to a new computer system for billing and tracking payments in 2020. The owners claimed that they discovered Friebel had taken 27,000 dollars in cash.
Detectives started combing through all records from January 2023 back to January 2021. They found that Beth Friebel had taken approximately $27,740.84 over a two-year period.
Recordings of phone conversations between Friebel and others were shared. Friebel allegedly was crying and said it was all a mistake. She hoped nothing legally would be done. She also went on to say she knows she did what she did. She also said that she would pay everything back. Detectives say that the older system was more challenging to decipher and that they were still working on it.
Beth Friebel was charged with embezzlement. Her bond was set at 10,000 dollars. She is currently out on bond.
