ST. LOUIS (News First) – Today (Thursday) U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel sentenced a woman who stole $165,239 from a St. Louis-area company before leaving for Scotland to 45 months in prison. 49-year-old Sarah Lynn Tweedie was also ordered to repay the money. After her release from prison, she will be forbidden from working in a job where she has access to money or the financial information of other people without permission.
Tweedie, formerly known as Sarah Jauregui, pleaded guilty in June to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. She admitted while working as the controller of a St. Louis area comic book company, she devised a scheme to steal from her employer in multiple ways. She used her company credit card and a card belonging to a former employee to make $138,137 in purchases, including a Scottish kilt and a $1,239 premium seat upgrade on her flight from Chicago to Glasgow. Tweedie also used the corporate account to purchase $6,400 in Amazon gift cards. Finally, she fraudulently increased her annual salary from $80,000 to $110,000 and triggered $16,086 in expense reimbursements to which she was not entitled.
Tweedie began a long-distance relationship with a Scottish man in 2015, according to extradition documents, and they became engaged in March of 2017, the month before she began working for the publishing company. Tweedie told her employer in December of 2017 that her fiancée had been injured in a car accident and that she needed to leave to be with him, according to court documents. In reality, Tweedie had applied for and received a visa to live in Scotland and did not plan to return. She was arrested on July 9, 2019, but fought extradition until her final appeal was denied in March of 2024.
“Sarah Tweedie fled the United States to avoid accountability for her crimes. She even used the victim company’s credit card to buy her one-way airline ticket to Scotland,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “Thanks to the persistence of Scottish authorities in successfully locating, arresting, and extraditing her, justice was served today.” The Florissant Police Department and the FBI investigated the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with Scottish authorities to secure the arrest and extradition of Tweedie. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman prosecuted the case.
