Milgard staffer charged with $1.6 million theft

TACOMA — A woman who worked for the president of Milgard Windows & Doors has been charged with embezzling $1.6 million from the manufacturer.

Lindy A.M. Robertson, 27, pleaded not guilty Friday in Pierce County Superior Court to 27 counts of theft and three of money laundering and was released on her own recognizance. No trial date was set.

Her lawyer, Spencer Douglas Freeman, could not be reached for comment by The News Tribune.

According to court records, Robertson and her husband, Jamal Robertson, were sued in March by Milgard, a division of Masco Corp. of Taylor, Mich. Trial on the lawsuit is set for next year. Her husband is not a defendant in the criminal case.

Robertson was hired in 2003 as executive assistant to Milgard President James J. Sweeney Jr. An American Express agent called Milgard in February to alert the company to questionable transactions involving her, according to documents filed in the criminal case.

The company conducted an internal investigation, including a forensic examination of Robertson's computer, and a Milgard lawyer contacted the Washington State Patrol to begin a criminal probe in March.

Investigators believe she kept original summary pages for a company American Express account and created spreadsheets to list detailed expenditures while altering the numbers to conceal her purchases, records say.

Robertson is accused of using company money to shop online at Nordstrom, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, pay off her mortgage, remodel her house, buy two cars, put $28,000 into a college fund for her two children and pay airfare to Uganda for her father, Abraham Mouracade, head of an outreach service for at-risk youth.

It was unclear from court records whether Mouracade knew how his travel was financed.