Idaho woman indicted for allegedly embezzling more than $1.7 million from irrigation district – East Idaho News

The next is a information launch from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace (Idaho).

BOISE – A federal grand jury in Boise returned an indictment charging Catherine Skidmore, 55, of Meridian, with 25 counts of wire fraud and 24 counts of cash laundering, U.S. Lawyer Josh Hurwit introduced in the present day.

As alleged within the indictment, Skidmore was the Secretary-Treasurer of the Black Canyon Irrigation District (BCID) from 2014 to July 2022. BCID is a public, semi-municipal fee-collecting entity managed by native landowners that served irrigation water provide in western Idaho.

As Secretary-Treasurer, it’s alleged Skidmore dealt with fee-collecting, invoice funds, administration of the funding accounts, and maintained the BCID’s QuickBooks database and ledgers. Skidmore additionally allegedly had entry to, and signature authority over, the BCID’s financial institution accounts, together with the flexibility to write down and deposit checks and switch funds to and from the accounts.

As additional alleged within the indictment, the charges the BCID collected from its members have been deposited into an working account. Reserve funds have been held in certificates of deposit and long-term funding accounts, together with Native Authorities Funding Pool (LGIP) accounts with the Idaho State Treasurer.

As additional alleged within the indictment, Skidmore opened a separate LGIP account on behalf of the BCID with out BCID’s data and used that account to facilitate a collection of transfers of BCID funds that have been finally utilized by her for her private use and profit.

As alleged, Skidmore falsely represented to the BCID Board of Administrators, Supervisor, and workers by making entries within the BCID inside accounting data that sure funds have been used to pay the BCID bills when, actually, Skidmore spent the funds for her private use. And as alleged, Skidmore additionally created and prompted to be created fictitious invoices to make it seem that the funds Skidmore had stolen have been used to pay for reputable BCID enterprise bills when, in actuality, Skidmore spent the funds to profit herself.

As additional alleged within the indictment, Skidmore fraudulently obtained at the very least $1,792,000 from her fraudulent scheme.

Skidmore is charged with wire fraud and cash laundering. Skidmore is scheduled for trial on March 13, 2023, earlier than Chief U.S. Justice of the Peace Choose David C. Nye of the U.S. District Court docket for the District of Idaho. If convicted, she faces a most of 20 years in federal jail. A federal district court docket choose will decide any sentence after contemplating the U.S. Sentencing Tips and different statutory elements.

U.S. Lawyer Hurwit credited the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which led to the fees.