Lee County woman who stole $4.2M and faked death sent to prison

A 49-year-old Lee County woman who faked her own death has been sentenced to federal prison for stealing $4.19 million from her employer for personal expenses and for gambling.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber sentenced Madelyn Hernandez of Lehigh Acres this week to the jail time for money laundering and wire fraud. He also ordered she forfeit the proceeds of the crime.

She pleaded guilty to the charges in January.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice here is what happened:

Hernandez was an employee at an undisclosed textile and apparel supply chain company. In a six-year span, between 2018 and 2024, she created fake invoices in the names of both a fictitious supplier and a defunct supplier and submitted them to her employer for payment.

The invoices, which said money was owed for goods ordered and delivered, were sent via email and directed payments to a bank account Hernandez controlled.

Over the years, federal prosecutors say, her employer paid her $4.19 million based on the fake orders and invoices.

The scheme began to unravel in June 2024, when the employer discovered discrepancies in its inventory and uncovered falsified business records. It began an investigation that dug up the fake invoices, proof of delivery records and inventory reports Hernandez had submitted over the years.

As the company continued its investigation, and more records were coming to light, the employer received a message from a supposed Hernandez family notifying the company she had died. An illness and complications from a surgery, led to her untimely death, the family member wrote.

That’s when the company reached out to law enforcement, prosecutors say.

In October, about four months after the company first discovered something was wrong, FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation agents served a search warrant on Hernandez’s Lehigh Acres home.

Hernandez — alive and well — confessed the scheme to agents and admitted sending the email about her own death.

Assistant United States Attorney Yolande G. Viacava prosecuted the case.