Lisa Hill had previously been sentenced to 57 months and an additional three years under court supervision after she is released from prison.
YORK COUNTY, S.C. — A convicted serial embezzler from North Carolina will spend an additional five years in prison, a York County judge ruled on Friday.
Liza Buza Hill, of Belmont, previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making false statements for embezzling more than $570,000 from two companies who recently employed her. She had previously been sentenced to 57 months and an additional three years under court supervision after she is released from prison.
But Hill’s story begins in 2012, when she was first convicted for a similar scheme.
Hill, who also was known as Lisa Rollins-Hill, was convicted then of federal wire fraud after the DOJ said she stole more than $800,000 from a motorcycle company she worked for in Kings Mountain. She had been ordered to serve a five-month probationary term and three years of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay $807,506.39 in restitution to the company.
However, Stetzer’s office says Hill would embezzle again, this time for a company in Charlotte where she worked as a controller. The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed fresh charges against her in July 2020, saying she misused her access to the company’s financial system from September 2019 through February 2020. She was able to issue 15 company checks to herself, totaling $22,000 while still paying back restitution from her 2012 conviction, and the office says she made false statements to the office’s attempts to collect said restitution.
It wouldn’t be the end for Hill, according to prosecutors. In June 2021, while her charges for the fraudulent check scheme were still pending, a federal bill of information was also filed against Hill. This time, she was charged with embezzling $550,000 in authorized funds from a development company in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she was employed as a Chief Financial Officer. Prosecutors say her access to the company’s financial records enabled her to make unauthorized payments for herself, enabling her to pay for personal expenses such as payments on a BMW vehicle, mortgage payments, a trip to Walt Disney World, and to settle misuse of funds allegations from previous employers.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the FBI and Charlotte Mecklenburg police conducted the investigations into Hill.
