FARGO - U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon announced that on July 23, 2012,Martina Kazena of Fort Totten, N.D., was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Erickson on charges of conspiracy to embezzle from an Indian Tribal organization and aiding and abetting. Kazena pleaded guilty to the charges on January 11, 2012.

Kazena, 66, admitted that while she was the director of the Spirit Lake Vocational Rehabilitation Program, she approved program benefits for her husband, William Kazena, and others, to which they were not otherwise entitled.

Judge Erickson sentenced Kazena to three months in a residential reentry facility followed by seven months of home detention. Thereafter, Kazena will be on three years of supervised release. A restitution hearing is scheduled for August 24, 2012. Kazena was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victims’ Fund.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Education - Office of Inspector General.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Janice M. Morley and Brett Shasky prosecuted the case.

 

 

 

 

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