Colorado Woman Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison on Federal Wire Fraud Charge, Admits Embezzling Mone
Colorado Woman Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison on Federal Wire Fraud Charge, Admits Embezzling Money from Non-Profit
WASHINGTON Ashley Furst, 35, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, was sentenced today to 27 months in prison for her role in an embezzlement scheme in which she stole over $545,000 from a non-profit organization in the District of Columbia.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Washington Field Office.
Furst pled guilty in January 2019, to one count of wire fraud charge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was sentenced by the Honorable Dabney L. Friedrich. In addition to her prison term, Furst must pay restitution in the amount of $244,994.87, as well as a forfeiture money judgement in the same amount. Following her prison term, she will be placed on three years of supervised release, during which she must complete 100 hours of community service.
Furst was hired in 2011 as the office administrator for the American Horse Council; a Washington, D.C. based non-profit trade association. She was later promoted to the position of Director of Communications. While employed by the non-profit, Fursts responsibilities included public outreach, membership recruitment, and communications. She also handled duties typically performed by an office administrator, such as maintaining accounting records, reconciling the monthly bank account statements, transferring on-line donations from the PayPal account to their bank account, providing copies of the bank statements to the members of the Board of Directors, and serving as the sole point of contact for the outside auditors.
Read more:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/colorado-woman-sentenced-27-months-prison-federal-wire-fraud-charge-admits-embezzling