Posted on 01/15/2008 5:54:56 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
A Mt. Horeb woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to embezzling $502,000 from the state petroleum clean up loan program she administered for a Cross Plains bank.
Jean M. Hosking's primary duty as executive vice president of the State Bank of Cross Plains was making disbursements from the Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Award she oversaw.
Beginning in July 1994 and until December 2006, she made disbursements to herself from the Department of Commerce's loan program established to remediate contaminated soil from leaky underground fuel storage tanks.
"She had complete control . . . there was no one to check up on her," Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Johnson said after court.
Hosking, 62, paid her bills out of the program until state officials became suspicious about one of the 23 loans the bank was administering from the PECFA fund and questioned her. Hosking confessed which prompted the State Bank of Cross Plains to review its entire PECFA portfolio and identify all the embezzled funds. The bank reimbursed the Department of Commerce to ensure that the state or any bank customers were affected by Hosking's theft, said Johnson.
Charlie Seaman, president of the State Bank of Cross Plains, said the bank had a variety of controls in place to prevent embezzlement but Hosking was able to circumvent them.
Seaman said the bank has since strengthened its internal controls and continues to participate in the PECFA program.
When questioned by District Judge John Shabaz, Hosking admitted to taking the money for "my own personal use."
Shabaz released Hosking on her own recognizance and set her sentencing for March 25 when she will face maximum penalties of 30 years in prison, $1 million fine, three years probation and restitution.
"Because that's where the money is!"
(Mt. Horeb, WI is a Cow Town of about 7K people.)
But it is in a beautiful, scenic area of wisconsin with very friendly folks, “cow town” that it may be.
Yep. Mt. Horeb is thirty minutes from my Cow Town of 8K. :) That was one big Chunk ‘O Cash she stole, even if it was “free money” from the Government. (Taxpayer dollars, mind you.)
Sixty-two and heading to prison until she’s 92. And a million dollar fine on top of that!
Yep. And Teddy Kennedy is still a free man. Go figure.
What did she do with the money? In a town that small it seems people would have noticed pretty quick if she had changed her lifestyle very much.
I went to the Madison Newspapers office on Fish Hatchery Rd. one day and requested all the articles which contained the name "Wallace Kalbacken" from the newspaper's morgue. What came back was an incredible volume of articles which both introduced the poor fellow and at the same time totally degraded him by describing this secret side. I'll never forget the first sentence of the first article I had seen in the paper regarding this scandal. It read "Prominent Mt. Horeb attorney Wallace Kalbacken..." and from that point on - every word cast him in a bad light.
So don't mess with Mt. Horeb!
I predict that she won’t get anywhere near 30 years in prison. I’ve watched embezzlers around here, and they frequently get off with little, or no, time and a big chunk of community service.
This may be different, however, since she was a bank employee, and there are different rules for them (frequently leading to Leavenworth).
But, there are so many small time embezzlers around here working for the various towns and villages and non-profits that my head spins. Type in the key word “embezzle” into the Journal Sentinel website, and you’d be amazed at how many articles come up. A lot of them seem to be well known at the various casinos. There was a local PTA president who walked off with about $10,000 and NOTHING was done to her beyond community service. Disgusting.
I almost hired an embezzler one time and something made me check the Wisconsin Circuit Court Records website — “Theft from Employer over $1000” was enough to keep me from offering her a position writing checks for our small company. I do it myself, instead.
I asked around and it had been a big deal at her former company, but you could barely tell from the Circuit Court Records — you had to read between the lines. But her former colleagues knew the whole story. Of course, she did not declare it on her application.
BTW, that Milwaukee firm never did tell me if I got the job... maybe I should call them to see if I'm still in the running.
Mr. niteowl77
I’ve always thought your “name” sounded familiar...and now I know!
“I predict that she won’t get anywhere near 30 years in prison.”
I know a woman who embezzled $500K from a large insurance company. She used the same scam of setting up phony vendor accounts and “paying” herself. She ended up in a Wisconsin women’s prison (hardly hard time) for less than 5 years, though she had to pay back every dime and bankrupted her family. Soon before her release from prison, she was in a prison vehicle accident and broke her leg and ankle quite badly and she now limps and will forever.
Her husband had to divorce her for financial and military career reasons, but he stuck by her and they’re still together. Her kids have not spoken to her in close to 15 years now, and she has never met her grandkids.
She spent the money on jewelry and clothes, remodeling her home, paying for a lavish wedding for her daughter, etc.
I can’t imagine how one dime of it was worth it, hard prison time or not.
That is why I approve all bills and write all checks for our small company. Even is the AP person is honest, they don’t always care about the bottom line and will approve sums that never should be paid.
After I took over the accounts I found that the previous accountant had stuck us with a bill for more than $25,000 for one computer that needed #1500 of upgrades each year. The upgrades were for software that was available for free from UPS and the software would run on a Win 98 computer with minimal memory. The 15k computer was a piece of junk that the leasing company didn’t even want returned. Not only that, UPS supplies all of the labels that I need to use for free, whereas the leased computer required that I purchase expensive labels.
Another AP clerk I hired ordered 10 years worth of expensive, printed, carbon forms against my directions. I fired her. I have 2000 of them left 6 years later.
Yep. My Husband and I both have our own small businesses. We’ve just managed to extricate ourselves from a not necessarily unscrupulous, but extremely LAZY, business partner. It was a nightmare, but it’s all worked out for the best. He, too, didn’t listen to us at all and squandered a lot of money that could’ve been in our pockets.
Anyhow, it’s a tough lesson to learn that you need to rely upon yourself first, and then others...as a last resort!
I’ve seen so much incompetence in small businesses that I’ve worked for, it’s ridiculous. My last employer entrusted me with millions of dollars, but every dime was always accounted for. He was the one that made the dumb money mistakes, not me.
But it was HIS money. *SHRUG*
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.