WESTFIELD — A Westfield woman has been charged with allegedly embezzling thousands of dollars from a health care agency.

On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. announced that 40-year-old Alicia Raynor was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with embezzlement. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Fabian, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, in 2012, Raynor was hired by Compassion at Home Inc. as the business manager. Between November 2012 and August 2015, Raynor had access to the payroll processing service of Compassion at Home, which was used to deposit pay directly into employee bank accounts. Raynor allegedly used the service to divert funds from the company’s bank account to accounts under her control. In August 2015, the president of the company terminated Raynor for using company funds to pay personal expenses.

In the middle of 2016, the president noticed that, although Raynor was no longer employed by Compassion at Home and was no longer entitled to any payments from the company, numerous wire transfers were being sent from a company bank account to Raynor. Realizing that Raynor had maintained access to the payroll processing service, the president eliminated Raynor access to the payment processing service, which ceased the wire transfers to Raynor.

Between Sept. 24, 2015, and June 30, 2016, Raynor received 139 electronic funds transfers from the company bank account into bank accounts under her control. The transfers involved variations of Raynor name, bank names, credit card names and names of employees of Compassion at Home. Raynor is accused of embezzling a total of $227,000 from the company.

Raynor made an initial appearance this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer and was released on conditions.

The complaint is the culmination of an investigation by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division.