A 45-year-old woman whose job it was to collect payment from advertisers in Hawaii Magazine, Honolulu Magazine and Hawaii Business magazine admitted Tuesday in U.S. District Court that she deposited checks worth more than $3.8 million into her own bank accounts instead of the account of her employer.

Johanne Jarlego pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one of filing a false income tax return in a deal with federal prosecutors. A federal grand jury returned an indictment in June charging Jarlego with 32 counts of bank fraud and four counts of filing a false tax return.

She faces a maximum 30-year prison term for the bank fraud charge and a three-year term for the false tax return charge at sentencing in February.

Jarlego also agreed Tuesday that she owes the Internal Revenue Service $308,354 for failing to claim any of the money she stole as income, and that she must forfeit to the government another $1,405,040. Jarlego was a credit analyst for AIO LLC, handling accounts receivable.

AIO is the parent company of Pacific Basin Communications, which publishes a number of periodicals including Hawaii Magazine, Honolulu Magazine, Hawaii Business and, until 2012, Ala Moana Shopping Magazine.

Jarlego told U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi, “I created two dummy accounts, and I used them to filter money from my employer’s businesses.” She said she did that between June 2008 and February 2012.

The dummy American Savings Bank accounts Jarlego created were for Ala Moana Trinkets, Books and Magazines and for Honolulu Trinkets, Books and Magazines. She deposited checks written to Ala Moana Magazine into the Ala Moana Trinkets account and checks written to Honolulu Magazine into the Honolulu Trinkets account.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Tong told Koba­yashi that when bank clerks questioned Jarlego about the discrepancies between the names of the bank accounts and the check payees, Jarlego was able to convince the clerks that the different names were for the same entity.

Jarlego said she told the clerks “that the checks were actually for those accounts when they were not.”

In order to conceal and continue her theft, Jarlego repaid more than $2.4 million of the money she stole, Tong said. The $1.4 million forfeiture amount is the difference between what Jarlego stole and what she paid back, he said.

AIO President Susan Eichor said Jarlego worked for the company from November 2004 to March 2015. She said Tuesday’s guilty plea “brings some closure to us,” adding, “We believe the worst is behind us, and we will continue to cooperate with federal agencies as this matter proceeds to sentencing.”