A judge yesterday quadrupled the bail to $2 million for a former San Mateo insurance agency account manager accused of bilking more than a half-million dollars of client money over a two-year span before taking medical leave.

Michele Renee Ganczarski, 45, of Santa Clara, was originally held on $500,000 bail — just shy of the $561,927 she is accused of taking between Oct. 4, 2007 and June 27, 2009 — but the amount was hiked to $2 million on Tuesday, according to Assistant District Attorney Karen Guidotti.

Ganczarski next returns to court to review the bail and set a preliminary hearing date.

She is charged with 20 counts of embezzlement greater than $400, 19 counts of obtaining personal identification information for an unlawful purpose and 19 counts of forgery. She has pleaded not guilty.

Since 2004, Ganczarski worked as an accounting manager for MacCorkle Insurance Service in San Mateo and was solely responsible for issuing checks from the company trust account to pay for clients’ insurance premiums. Over a 21-month period beginning in fall 2007, Ganczarski wrote 87 company checks to herself and deposited them into her personal checking account at what was then Washington Mutual Bank, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

On July 20, Ganczarski allegedly left a message at work that she would be taking a medical leave for an undetermined period of time and her son dropped off paperwork for an absence Aug. 3. Between the two days, on July 29, the company owner conducted an audit of bank records and discovered the embezzlement, prosecutors said.

Ganczarski is on indefinite leave, MacCorkle President and CEO Bernard Lauper said after her arrest.