A former bookkeeper for a Lower Southampton Township law firm was sentenced Thursday, June 26, 2025, to serve time in county for systematically stealing more than $800,000 from her employer over six years.

Reese Esther Paul, 66, of Holland, Northampton Township, received a sentence of one year less a day to two years less a day in the Bucks County Correctional Facility, followed by five years of probation. President Judge Raymond F. McHugh also ordered Paul to pay $839,816.41 in restitution to the Law Office of Rovner, Allen, Rovner, Zimmerman, Sigman and Schmidt.

Paul pleaded guilty in March to orchestrating a scheme that embezzled $822,816.41 from the firm between December 20, 2017, and December 29, 2023. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber noted that Paul has yet to take significant steps toward liquidating assets to repay the stolen funds.  Paul did make a restitution payment of $100,000 at the time of sentencing.

Steven Rovner, the principal and managing attorney for the law firm, addressed the court during the sentencing.

The extensive fraud came to light after a check from the firm's New Jersey escrow account bounced due to insufficient funds. When accountants met with Paul at her home on January 9, 2024, to review financial records – as she had been regularly working remotely – the depth of her deception began to unravel.

An investigation by Lower Southampton Detective Joseph Zaffino revealed Paul’s multi-faceted embezzlement. Between December 1, 2021, and December 29, 2023, Paul made 90 unauthorized electronic transfers totaling $450,000 to her personal credit card accounts. These transactions were disguised in expense reports as payments to the New Jersey Judiciary Account Charge System, a system attorneys use for filing fees.

Prior to these transfers, from 2017 to 2021, Paul had written 71 unauthorized checks to herself, amounting to $372,816.41. At least one of these checks, attempted to be deposited in 2020, was flagged for suspected forgery of the signature of Robert Rovner, who was over 60 years old at the time and passed away in 2021. All 71 checks were later confirmed as forged.

Detective Zaffino's deep dive into Paul’s personal bank accounts exposed how the stolen money was spent: significant personal and family expenditures, including travel, retail purchases, cash advances, online gambling, and even contributions to her grandchildren's college savings accounts.

Beyond the direct financial losses, the law firm incurred an additional $17,000 in accounting fees to uncover and quantify the extent of the theft. Paul’s illicit activities also caused disciplinary issues for the firm in New Jersey.

In March, Paul entered an open guilty plea to multiple charges, including dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, theft by deception, identity theft, access device fraud, computer trespass, and forgery.

The case was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber, who leads the Insurance Fraud and Economic Crimes Unit.

Media Contact: Manuel Gamiz Jr., 215.348.6298, mgamiz@buckscounty.org.