A former bookkeeper for the Minto Village Council was sentenced Thursday to spend five years on probation for embezzling more than $55,000.
Melanie Titus, 51, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one charge of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds in February.
Titus began working as the village’s bookkeeper in 2013 and began embezzling money in 2015, according to a summary of the allegations written by a federal prosecutor and included with the charges. Minto is home to about 170 people and is located on the Tolovana River, roughly 130 miles northwest of Fairbanks.
The village is low on resources and the theft left it “in a difficult financial position to assist its members with necessities in the years leading up to the coronavirus pandemic,” Assistant U.S. Attorney George Tran wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
A representative for the Minto Village Council was not immediately available for comment.
Titus took the money to fuel a drug and alcohol addiction, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by the public defender representing her. She became sober toward the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 and has remained sober since, the memorandum said. Titus felt it was important to disclose her wrongdoing and told the tribal chief she had embezzled funds, the memorandum said.
The Tanana Chiefs Conference, the nonprofit tribal consortium for the region, directed the village to fire Titus and she resigned from her role as bookkeeper in 2019, the memorandum said. The crimes were also reported to law enforcement, and Titus was cooperative and forthcoming with FBI agents during the following investigation, according to the memorandum.
She was charged in January and pleaded guilty about a month later.
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason sentenced Titus to spend five years on probation and repay the money she embezzled, according to court records. She was also ordered to complete 300 hours of community service that will benefit the village and its members, according to Tran.
It’s important to prosecute economic crimes like Titus’ because it impacts entire communities, Tran said by phone Friday. The federal public defender assigned to the case could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.