United States Attorney James T. Jacks
Northern District of Texas

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

FORMER BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA (BSA) EMPLOYEE SENTENCED TO
FEDERAL PRISON FOR DEFRAUDING SCOUTING ORGANIZATION
OF MORE THAN $350,000

Woman Worked as a Secretary at BSA for More Than 23 Years

DALLAS — Barbara Nestel, of Justin, Texas, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to serve 24 months in federal prison for defrauding the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) of more than $350,000, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. In addition, Judge Godbey ordered that Nestel pay $350,266 in restitution to the BSA. She is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons no later than March 29, 2010, to begin serving her sentence.

Nestel pleaded guilty in October 2009 to one count of wire fraud. According to documents filed with that plea, Nestel was a longtime BSA employee who worked as a secretary from April 1985 to May 2008. Part of her duties included reconciling financial accounts and processing payments for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) for merchandise and expenses.

In her employment capacity, Nestel used an electronic point-of-sale terminal to process debit and credit card transactions for customer purchases and refunds. Although she was not entitled to any refunds, Nestel would process or “swipe” her personal debit card through the electronic point-of-sale terminal which submitted the refund request. This process caused a wire transfer of funds from a BSA bank account in Dallas to Nestel’s personal bank accounts.

Nestel admitted that she processed at least 500 fraudulent refunds which caused at least 500 unlawful interstate wire transfers to be made from the BSA bank account to her personal bank accounts.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles W. Brown.

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