Rapid City Woman Sentenced for Defrauding the Rapid City Club for Boys

United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced that a Rapid City, South Dakota, woman convicted of Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, and Tax Evasion was sentenced by Chief Judge Jeffrey L. Viken, U.S. District Court.

Olivia Kuehner, age 49, was sentenced on June 19, 2019, to 41 months in federal prison, followed by 1 year of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $300 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.  In addition, she was ordered to pay $160,380.16 in restitution to the Rapid City Club for Boys, $20,481.71 in restitution to Collins Siding, and $54,298.00 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

The conviction stems from Kuehner, while employed as the accounting manager for the Rapid City Club for Boys, Inc. (“Club for Boys”), devising a scheme to defraud the organization between September 2012 and June 2017.  Kuehner embezzled money belonging to the Club for Boys by making fraudulent payments to herself, family members, and a nominee entity she controlled, and then omitted the fraudulent payments from the Club for Boys’ accounting records, or misclassified the payments to make it appear vendors or other employees had been paid.  After receiving the fraudulently obtained funds, Kuehner transferred a portion of the funds to other bank accounts she controlled in order to conceal the nature, source, and ownership of the embezzled proceeds. 

Kuehner also prepared and filed a False Form W-2 with the IRS that understated her income and overstated her federal income tax withholding.  Kuehner then prepared and filed a False Form 1040A which matched the False Form W-2.

In addition to her embezzlement at the Club For Boys, Kuehner also stole more than $20,000 from Collins Siding, where she was employed after she left the Club for Boys.

The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Rapid City Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Patterson prosecuted the case.

Kuehner was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.