Proof you can't buy taste.

Bookkeeper admits stealing $6.9 million

Employee embezzled money to pay for ranch, Al Capone statue and more

'BOSTON - A bookkeeper pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling $6.9 million to pay for such things as a ranch in Vermont, a life-size statue of Al Capone and a private performance by singer Burt Bacharach, federal authorities said.

Angela Buckborough Platt, 43, pocketed the money over six years while an accountant for J & J Materials Corp. in Rehobeth, Mass., federal prosecutors said. She was charged with one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.

Under the plea deal, Platt, formerly of Cumberland, R.I., and now of Wyoming, Pa., must pay back all of the money, and prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of at least four years and seven months. The charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine.

Prosecutors said Platt - who made $40,000 a year wrote checks from company accounts to herself and eventually began writing checks for nearly $50,000. Her theft was discovered in June by another bookkeeper.

Platt's purchases included six talking trees modeled after the "Wizard of Oz" characters; a 20-foot-tall smoke-breathing dragon; a four-bedroom house in Rhode Island; more than 35 vehicles; and a replica of a Ford Model T customized to look like a green goblin.'