A Glen Arm woman admitted to stealing about $260,000 from her employer, some of which she used to pay off credit cards and repair her Mercedes, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Lynn Marshall.

“As she sat there at night cranking out checks to herself, she was consciously trying to punish Harkin Builders,” Howard Circuit Judge Richard Bernhardt said Monday.

Christian Marie Eldringhoff, 37, pleaded guilty to theft over $500 Monday after being indicted by a Howard County grand jury April 18 for stealing money from Harkin Builders.

Eldringhoff was working long hours, often alone, as the controller for the design-build contractor in Marriottsville that has built more than 600 projects in the mid-Atlantic region.

This story continues below
Advertisement

“She felt she was being victimized by the company and retaliated against it,” said Eldringhoff’s lawyer, Mauricio Barreiro. “The shame that she feels and the embarrassment she feels today is palpable.”

Eldringhoff has paid “full restitution” to the company and cooperated with detectives in assessing how much money she stole between May 2000 and March 2006, Barreiro said in court.

She also paid $40,000 in interest and paid the forensic fees for the investigation, Barreiro said.

Eldringhoff handled accounting and recorded all transactions for a salary between $110,000 and $190,000, Marshall said. She began stealing money about five months after being promoted to the controller position, Marshall said.

According to court records, Eldringhoff could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for:

» Using a fictional vendor to pay personal credit card charges with company checks totaling $216,224.65

» Paying for a personal auto repair bill with a Harkins check in the amount of $1,517.00

Eldringhoff, who now lives in Texas, is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 2 in Howard County Circuit Court.

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com