Kennewick woman allegedly stole at least $183,352 from mother’s 401(k) account

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Kennewick woman charged with hacking into her mother’s 401(k) account and stealing at least $183,352.

Karrlee T. Clements, 35, allegedly set up prepaid cards and credit cards in both of their names so as not to draw suspicion during the multiple transfer requests.

Then she used the cards to buy airplane tickets, go shopping and withdraw cash, according to court documents.

However, Clements denied using any of the money for personal gain, documents said. She told investigators she withdrew more than $100,000 to remodel her mother’s home, where she also lived, and that neither of them had been employed for some time.

Clements allegedly refused to talk further when asked how she got access to the retirement account.

Kennewick police were tipped off by Clements’ brother, who is a Las Vegas police officer, and his wife after Clements reportedly talked about taking the money.

Clements is charged in Benton County Superior Court with first-degree theft and first-degree identity theft. Both crimes include a domestic violence allegation and the aggravating circumstance of being a major economic offense.

The warrant, issued last Wednesday, is for $50,000.

She was not in custody Sunday evening, according to Benton County jail staff.

Catherine Clements, now 57, had worked at Hanford until 2013. In December of that year, she withdrew $15,000 from her Vanguard 401(k) account to help with living expenses, court documents said.

She then left the account alone and did not authorize anyone else to withdraw additional funds. But during a 14-month period in 2014 and 2015, the account balance dropped nearly $218,000, documents said.

At some point, Karrlee Clements admitted in a conversation with her sister-in-law that a friend was making repairs on the house and she was quoting “highly inflated estimates” to her mother, court documents said.

Clements said she was getting the money from her mother’s retirement account and would pay her friend the actual expenses for repairs, while pocketing the difference, documents said.

Detective Dan Todd discovered the email address associated with the retirement account was changed in May 2014. Records obtained through a search warrant to Microsoft showed Catherine Clement’s name was on the account profile, but initials in the email address matched her daughter.

Todd also found that Karrlee Clements appeared to be the account’s primary user based on numerous dating website inquiries, airline reservations, the purchase of beauty products and her TurboTax account.

Some of the 401(k) money was transferred to a Bancorp account, which led Todd to learn the financial institution had several accounts under the names of both mother and daughter. One of the accounts had a prepaid card, and a search of Clements’ computer showed email correspondence about a $9,920 disbursement from the retirement account to that card, court documents said.

The investigation also turned up American Express cards with 16 deposits from the retirement account ranging from $3,600 to $18,000, documents said.

Todd reportedly could not find any documentation that Catherine Clements had used any of the cards.

This story was originally published March 6, 2016 at 10:06 PM with the headline "Kennewick woman allegedly stole at least $183,352 from mother’s 401(k) account."