Virginia woman uses charity money to make purchases at DoorDash, PlayStation, Walmart and more

SPRINGFIELD, Va. — A Virginia woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling over $250,000 from her employer. 

According to the Department of Justice, Jennifer Giorffino served as the administrator for an organization created to help prisoners of war. The organization was fully funded by donations. Giorffino's role within the organization included processing donor checks and paying the organization's bills. 

In Oct. 2022, Giorffino began using debit cards linked to her job's bank accounts for personal use. She was making purchases at Amazon, Walmart, PlayStation, DoorDash, Instacart, BarkBox, and Stich Fix. Giorffino also made deposits into her husband's account and a PayPal account linked to her information.

The following year, Giorffino's fraudulent actions grew. She began using the Chairman of the organization's identity to open 30 credit cards. These lines of credit included store credit at Lane Bryant, Kohls, TJ Maxx, LL Bean, and other stores. Giorffino spent $36,278.29 on one of the credit cards she opened. She would then use money from the organization's bank account to pay off the credit cards. 

Giorffino would also do periodic checks of the Chairman's credit to ensure she could continue opening credit cards with her information. During this time, Giorffino also applied for small business loans 78 times. It is unclear if she was approved for those loans. 

In Feb. 2024, she opened up a checking account under the organization's name and began funneling donations made to the organization, into the new checking account. In total Giorffino diverted nearly $30,000 of the organization's funds into her account. 

By March 2024, Giorffino had nearly emptied the organization's bank account. She was writing bad checks, her credit cards were declining, and she was falsifying bank records at board meetings. In total Giorffino stole $257,259. 

She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 6, 2025.