minnesota woman sentenced for fraud and identity theft
Contact: Peter Deegan
A woman who embezzled more than $100,000 from a Northwood, Iowa, business was sentenced yesterday, June 8, 2011, to more than five years in federal prison.
Barbara Ann Paulson (formerly Krauth), age 40, from Waseca, Minnesota, received the prison term after a January 31, 2011, guilty plea to one count of making and passing a counterfeit check with intent to deceive, one count of using a fraudulently obtained credit card to charge over $1,000, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In a plea agreement, Paulson admitted that, between about January 2005 and October 2006, she defrauded her employer by obtaining authorized signatures on business checks and then altering the checks so they could be used for her own purposes. She admitted receiving over $100,000 in benefits or cash through the use of the counterfeit checks. Paulson also admitted using her employer’s name and social security number to obtain a credit card and then making over $40,000 in charges on the card. Paulson admitted paying over $30,000 on the card balance by making unauthorized transfers from her employers’ bank accounts.
Paulson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Paulson was sentenced to 70 months’ imprisonment to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. A special assessment of $300 was imposed, and she was ordered to make $156,925.34 in restitution. There is no parole in the federal system.
Paulson was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger and investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 09-4044 LRR.
