Wisconsin's Joyce Sakach sentenced to prison for $680k steal from orthodontic practice; still owes $856k

Joyce Sakach, 74, of Racine, Wisconsin (WI) was charged with five felony counts in connection with an alleged scheme to steal and defraud a Mount Pleasant orthodontics firm for which she performed bookkeeping. Prosecutors allege Sakach diverted approximately $680,000 from the practice over time. The case demonstrates that apparent trustworthiness and seniority do not eliminate embezzlement risk — sound internal controls must be independent of personal trust.

Update: Guilty Plea, Prison, and an Unpaid $856K Debt

Court records show Sakach pleaded guilty on July 24, 2015 to fraud against a financial institution exceeding $100,000, a Class E felony; four other felony counts — theft in a business setting and three identity-theft charges — were dismissed but read in at sentencing. On October 6, 2015, Judge John S. Jude sentenced her to 4 years 1 month in the Wisconsin prison system, structured as 13 months of initial confinement followed by 3 years of extended supervision, and ordered $702,745 in restitution. She was taken into custody at sentencing, served her confinement at the Robert Ellsworth Correctional Center — a 2016 petition for sentence adjustment was denied — and was discharged in November 2019.

The financial consequences did not end there. In October 2019, civil judgments were entered against her for the unpaid obligations: $700,669.50 in restitution owed to the victim dentist plus more than $109,000 owed to the court. As of the most recent court records, she still owes $856,482.34 — a reminder that restitution orders are only as good as the assets behind them, and why Prosperident pushes for early detection before losses reach this scale.

Source: Wisconsin Circuit Court Access — State v. Joyce F. Sakach, Racine County 2015CF000329