A former bookkeeper for a Lower Southampton Township law firm was sentenced on June 26, 2025, to serve time in county jail for systematically stealing more than $800,000 from her employer over six years.
Reese Esther Paul, 66, of Holland, Northampton Township, received a sentence ranging from one year less a day to two years less a day at Bucks County Correctional Facility, followed by five years of probation. President Judge Raymond F. McHugh also ordered Paul to pay $839,816.41 in restitution to the Law Office of Rovner, Allen, Rovner, Zimmerman, Sigman, and Schmidt.
Paul pleaded guilty in March to orchestrating a scheme that embezzled $822,816.41 between December 20, 2017, and December 29, 2023. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber noted that Paul has yet to take substantial steps to liquidate assets for repayment, though she paid $100,000 at sentencing.
The fraud was uncovered after a bounced check from the firm’s New Jersey escrow account raised alarms. When accountants met with Paul at her home in January 2024 to review financial records, the extent of the theft was revealed.
An investigation led by Lower Southampton Detective Joseph Zaffino uncovered 90 unauthorized electronic transfers totaling $450,000 to Paul’s personal credit cards between 2021 and 2023. These transactions were disguised as payments to the New Jersey Judiciary Account Charge System, a common filing fee platform.
From 2017 to 2021, Paul wrote 71 unauthorized checks totaling $372,816.41 to herself. At least one check attempted to be deposited in 2020 was flagged for suspected forgery of Robert Rovner’s signature, the firm’s principal who passed away in 2021. All 71 checks were later confirmed forged.
Detective Zaffino’s review of Paul’s personal accounts revealed the stolen funds financed personal and family expenses, including travel, retail purchases, cash advances, online gambling, and contributions to her grandchildren’s college funds.
The law firm incurred an additional $17,000 in accounting fees due to the theft. The fraudulent activity also caused disciplinary challenges for the firm in New Jersey.
In March, Paul entered an open guilty plea to multiple charges including dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, theft by deception, identity theft, access device fraud, computer trespass, and forgery.
The case was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber of the Insurance Fraud and Economic Crimes Unit.
