(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - A Washington woman was sentenced for her role in embezzling $289,000 from Trident Seafoods. Anne Wilson, 31 of Kent, Washington, was sentenced on March 21st by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline, to 16 months in prison.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Aunnie Steward, from January 2008, and continuing until August 2010, the lead defendant Isairis Wolfe, used her position as the book keeper for Trident Seafoods in Kodiak, to write Trident Seafoods checks to four of her personal associates Anne Wilson, Jeremy Smith, Valerie Olivares, and Jamie Fathke. Wolfe, using her check writing authority at Trident Seafoods, drafted approximately 52 checks on a Trident Seafoods account for approximately $500,000, and made them payable to her personal associates Wilson, Smith, Olivares, and Fathke, as well as to Wilson's minor son L.E. The checks were negotiated by Wolfe and her associates and they shared the proceeds. Wolfe concealed the fraud by creating fraudulent accounting records so that the payments appeared to be legitimate.

Wilson and Wolfe met while working together at Trident Seafoods. Wilson was fired from Trident Seafoods but stayed in touch with Wolfe. Wilson approached Wolfe for a loan of a few hundred dollars and instead of granting a loan, Wolfe asked Wilson to join the scheme to defraud Trident Seafoods which she agreed to. Over a two and a half year period, Wilson negotiated 28 fraudulent checks that were made out to both her and her minor son that totaled $289,660. Wilson kept half of the money from the fraudulent checks and provided the remaining half to Wolfe. Wilson admitted that she wired some of the money from the fraudulent scheme to the father of her children who was in Mexico, knowing that he was a fugitive for a murder charge in Texas.

Wilson said that she knew that what she was doing was wrong but that did not stop her participation in the scheme. The scheme only stopped when Wolfe was fired from Trident Seafoods for performance related reasons and was no longer in a position to write the fraudulent checks. The scheme was discovered when an audit of the books and records was conducted by Trident Seafoods. Wilson admitted in court that she obtained United States citizenship while the scheme was ongoing but before it was discovered by Trident Seafoods.

Wolfe is scheduled for sentencing on May 22, 2013. Olivares and Smith are scheduled for sentencing on June 4, 2013. Fathke was sentenced on January 9, 2013, to 4 months jail for her role in embezzling $30,000 from Trident Seafoods.

Trident Seafoods, based in Seatlle, has 10 plants in Alaska including plants in Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Petersburg.

U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler commended the FBI for the investigation of this case.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News: 

U.S. Department of Justice - Alaska District
www.justice.gov

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