Ex-CEO charged with embezzling $15M to fund lavish lifestyle

STATESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A former CEO has been charged with embezzling more than $15 million from her employer and using stolen money to pay for a lavish lifestyle, including travel, jewelry and family weddings. A court filing on Friday also accuses Donna Osowitt Steele, of Taylorsville, North Carolina, of using stolen money to fund personal businesses run by her family. Steele is charged with one count of wire fraud. Online court records don’t list an attorney for her who could comment. The company that employed Steele as its CEO isn’t named in Friday’s court filing. But prosecutors said it’s a subsidiary of a foreign corporation that makes products for the woodworking industry.