A Fremont woman has pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges stemming from a scheme to defraud Palo Alto-based HP, her former employer, of more than $5 million.
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Shelbee Szeto pleaded guilty on counts of wire fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return in a plan to defraud her former employer HP, Inc., the United States Attorney’s Office of Northern District of California.
Szeto was an executive assistant and financial planning manager for HP from 2017 to 2021, according to the district attorney's office. In this position, she was responsible for making payments for the company’s vendors, which gave her access to HP commercial credit cards. According to the district attorney's office, Szeto created a plan to send about $4.8 million in unauthorized payments from the company’s credit cards to several of her personal accounts.
She also attempted to steal an additional $330,000 from HP, resulting in a total of $5,2 million stolen. She had several luxury items seized, including a 2020 Tesla, 2021 Porsche, several designer bags and a collection of expensive jewelry, the district attorney’s office reported.
In February she was charged by the Office of the United States Attorney and agreed to the plea deal, the district attorney’s office reported.
According to the district attorney’s office, the maximum sentencing, she can get for her wire fraud counts is a fine up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release, per count. For her money laundering charges, the maximum sentencing she faces 10 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 and then three years of supervised release per count. For filing a false tax return she faces a fine up to $100,000 and a year of supervised release.
She is scheduled for sentencing on July 20.
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