RIVERDALE, Utah – A Riverdale woman has been charged with felony offenses after authorities allege she embezzled approximately $600,000 from her employer over a seven-year period to fund personal expenses, including travel, shopping, and healthcare. Lori Jonnelle Durbano, 57, faces charges of theft and multiple counts of tax evasion and filing false tax returns, filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court.
According to charging documents, the Utah State Tax Commission’s Criminal Investigation Unit began investigating Durbano in July following a report of potential embezzlement from Ron J. Peterson Construction, Inc., where she had been employed since 2009. Durbano held a position of significant financial responsibility, overseeing accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, and payroll.
The investigation revealed that Durbano initially requested a pay advance from her employer in 2018, citing maxed-out credit cards. While Peterson reportedly granted the advance, a common practice for employees, investigators allege Durbano continued to divert company funds to her personal credit accounts for years. The charges state that Peterson discovered some payments were falsely coded as advances, while the majority were disguised as business-related material costs.
A review of transactions between 2018 and 2025 showed the “vast majority of payments on Lori Durbano’s account” originated from the company’s funds. Investigators identified sixty checks totaling over $605,000, with only two payments exceeding $12,700 deemed legitimate business expenses. These payments were allegedly miscategorized as carpenter expenses, materials, wages, salaries, and payments to a lumber company on reports submitted to the tax commission.
The alleged misuse of funds extended to a wide range of personal expenditures. Charging documents detail more than $182,000 spent on travel, nearly $180,000 on shopping, approximately $87,000 on home goods and maintenance, over $71,000 on healthcare, more than $51,500 on entertainment, and $34,000 on cosmetic procedures. Investigators determined these expenses were “personal in nature and were not consistent with ordinary and necessary business expenses of a construction company.”
Further complicating the case, investigators found that authorized pay advances to Durbano were not reported on her tax filings. The charges emphasize Durbano’s financial expertise, stating she “should have known of her obligation to report all income on her tax returns.”
When questioned by investigators, Durbano reportedly stated she had requested a pay advance from her boss for her credit card debt and that he had agreed. She claimed the arrangement was never explicitly defined as a one-time advance or an ongoing arrangement, according to court documents.
