A former Home Depot employee pleaded not guilty Thursday to embezzling more than $800,000 from the chain’s Santa Ana store.
Diana Fabie Campano, 63, of Costa Mesa, was charged last month with multiple counts of grand theft by embezzlement and money laundering, dating back to 2018, according to the criminal complaint. Campano, who was arrested on the charges Tuesday, pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to return to court Nov. 22.
Campano also faces sentencing enhancements for aggravated white collar crime exceeding $500,000.
She was accused of stealing $373,262.37 in 2018 and $320,370 in 2021, according to the complaint.
Restitution in the case was estimated at $820,500, according to court records.
Home Depot officials spotted a $250,000 loss at the Santa Ana store in April 2021, triggering a probe, according to the complaint.
An official visited the store to determine if it was a processing error or some other miscalculation. The official discovered 17 discrepancies that mirrored missing deposits in 2018, the complaint alleges.
An internal investigation showed Campano, “a back-office associate,” who was in charge of the store’s deposits, “was hiding or destroying deposit seal numbers, changing the dates of the missing deposits to show that they were arriving late, placing the deposits in her lunch bag and leaving the store with them,” the complaint alleges.
The alleged thefts were not discovered earlier because Campano “was asked to look into the 2018 loss,” according to the complaint.
“She falsely directed investigators’ attention to the input errors in the deposit tracking systems, leading investigators to conclude the loss was caused by an operational error,” the complaint alleges.
“Meanwhile, Campano continued taking money from the deposit bags, hiding the empty deposit bags, and manipulating the carrier logs by overriding the system, all of which allowed Campano to avoid suspicion and continue her thefts until 2021.”