Nov 29
2012
2012
Norma Eltringham, a bookkeeper and tax preparer in Abilene, pleaded no contest Nov.29 to a charge of aggregate theft and was ordered to pay $67,792 in restitution to investors in an oil-related startup.
The sentence, issued in the 104th state District Court in Taylor County, includes seven years deferred adjudication.
Eltringham controlled the finances of Research Production International, an Abilene company that was supposedly developing new technologies to extract oil. Eltringham took investors' money to pay for a pickup truck, to buy a rental property, and to make loans to friends.
Eltringham funneled loan repayments into her bookkeeping and tax service business.