A woman who stole $165,239 from a St. Louis-area company before fleeing to Scotland was sentenced on Thursday to 45 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel also ordered Sarah Lynn Tweedie, 49, to repay the stolen money. Upon her release, Tweedie will be prohibited from working in any job where she has access to financial information without permission.
Tweedie, formerly known as Sarah Jauregui, pleaded guilty in June to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. While employed as the controller of a comic book publishing company in the St. Louis area, she carried out multiple fraudulent schemes to steal from her employer.
Among her crimes, Tweedie used company credit cards, including one belonging to a former employee, to make $138,137 in personal purchases. This included a Scottish kilt and a $1,239 premium seat upgrade on her flight from Chicago to Glasgow. She also charged $6,400 in Amazon gift cards to the company’s account.
Additionally, Tweedie fraudulently increased her annual salary from $80,000 to $110,000 and obtained $16,086 in expense reimbursements to which she was not entitled.
Tweedie’s crimes began after she entered into a long-distance relationship with a Scottish man in 2015. They became engaged in March 2017, shortly before she started her employment at the company. In December 2017, Tweedie told her employer she needed to leave to care for her fiancé, who had allegedly been injured in a car accident. However, court documents revealed she had already applied for a visa to live in Scotland and did not intend to return to the U.S.
Tweedie was arrested on July 9, 2019, but fought extradition until her final appeal was denied in March 2024. Acting Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division said, “Sarah Tweedie fled the United States to avoid accountability for her crimes. She even used the victim company’s credit card to buy her one-way airline ticket to Scotland. Thanks to the persistence of Scottish authorities, justice was served.”
The Florissant Police Department and the FBI conducted the investigation, and the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with Scottish authorities to secure Tweedie’s extradition. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman prosecuted the case.
