An employee of SeaWorld’s Aquatica water park has been arrested for allegedly stealing more than $100,000 from the company. Lisa Olivardia, 50, has worked for SeaWorld for more than 30 years. Over a three-year period during her time as a supervisor in Guest Relations at Aquatica, she was able to defraud the company of $100,000 in cash.
Jane Watrel, of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, said, “It appears she used her underlings for her own financial gain. She would go up to the subordinate and say, ‘You can go on break now’ and instead of logging them off the computer, kept it open to void the transactions and keep large amounts of cash.”
One of the company’s vice presidents had noticed that Olivardia’s voided transactions were triple that of any other supervisor. After checking surveillance footage, law enforcement was called in.
She tried to minimize what she’d done, but then told officers, “I did it all.” She claimed the money was to pay her mortgage or for her child’s education, but there were no receipts, so Watrel says it appears she just spent the cash.
SeaWorld said, “We have extensive security measures in place, including pre-employment criminal background checks and ongoing proactive measures within our parks to identify this type of activity.”
Olivardia was charged with grand theft.
News source: WESH 2
Photo credit: Wikipedia
