Woman pleads guilty in tribal embezzlement case

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – A former Fort Peck tribal employee has pleaded guilty to her role in a decade-long scheme in which more than $1 million was stolen from the tribe's credit department.
Dolly D. Crowe, 45, of Poplar pleaded guilty to theft from an Indian tribal organization and to conspiracy to obstruct a federal audit during a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Keith Strong of Great Falls on Tuesday. Crowe faces up to five years in prison and at least three years of supervised release on each charge when she is sentenced on Oct. 14.
Crowe is one of six former tribal and federal employees charged in February and the first to plead guilty.
The indictment alleges the defendants embezzled money from the credit program and tried to hide the thefts from auditors by changing the names of borrowers listed on loan files to those of deceased tribal members.
An audit in June 2009 found the amount of outstanding short term loans was over $1.6 million with nearly half of that total being loans to credit program employees and their families.
Prosecutors held Crowe responsible for about $167,000 in losses.
Court records said between May 2005 and May 2009, there were 148 disbursements totaling $138,588 from the tribe's credit department payable to Crowe. Most of the payments were recorded as short-term loans, while about 20 were recorded as miscellaneous expenses.
Prosecutors say Crowe also received $28,232 from the program by fraudulently recording payments to her as short-term loans made to her mother and sister.
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Information from: Billings Gazette,
http://www.billingsgazette.com