Melissa Ormonde of Hickman was sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and embezzlement from the Nebraska Book Company.

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Ormonde was also ordered to pay $237,823 in restitution to the Nebraska Book Company and serve three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Deb Gilg said.

Beginning in August 2008, Ormonde was employed at the Nebraska Book Company and placed in charge of payroll. The Nebraska Book Company handles college books for campus bookstores around the country.

Shortly after her employment began in 2008, Ormonde started embezzling money, which ultimately totaled nearly $237,823, Gilg said.

The scheme was discovered in November 2011. When confronted, Ormonde confessed to what investigators discovered. She admitted that in June 2010 she created a fictitious employee and had his wages deposited into one of her bank accounts. In addition, in October 2011, she continued to pay an employee who had been terminated, again directing the payments to one of her bank accounts. Both those accounts totaled $115,700, Gilg said.

Subsequent investigations by the Nebraska Book company revealed duplicate paychecks for 23 other employees that dated back to 2008 and were deposited into one of Ormonde's bank accounts, bringing the total embezzlement to approximately $237,823.

The Nebraska Book Company used a company called Automatic Data Processing to pay its employees, so all payment directives sent by Ormonde constituted interstate wire communications, Gilg said.

The Nebraska Book Company has struggled with financial issues. On June 29, the company emerged from bankruptcy, with a lower debt and significantly stronger balance sheet, the company said.

Ormonde’s case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Lincoln Police Department.