Alaska woman ordered to pay $67,000 in restitution for office theft

bridget-l-mincheski

JUNEAU | A 38-year-old Beaver Dam woman must pay more than $67,000 in restitution after she pleaded guilty to making out almost $54,000 worth of checks from an office she was managing, and sending the money to men who may have been scamming her.

Bridget L. Mincheski pleaded guilty to three felony counts of uttering a forgery. An additional 15 counts were dismissed but read into the record.

Judge Brian Pfitzinger found Mincheski guilty of the three counts and sentenced her to four years of probation, withheld. Mincheski must pay restitution of $67,050.14 and must complete 160 hours of community service. If Mincheski pays her restitution on time and completes her community service she will not be required to serve any jail time. If she does not, she must serve 60 days in the Dodge County Jail with huber and transfer privileges.

 According to the criminal complaint, Mincheski was the office manager for Dr. Mary Grote when Beaver Dam police investigated a forgery incident at the dental office. Police spoke with Grote on Aug. 28 and she told them she had been contacted by her bank about several suspicious business check transactions. Grote said she believed Mincheski had cashed 18 checks in less than two months. The checks totaled $53,994.
 The checks were created with a computer program and they were made out to Mincheski. Grote’s name was signed using a business stamp. The checks ranged from $450 to $5,000. An employee at the bank saw Mincheski cashing some of the checks.

According to the criminal complaint, police went to Mincheski’s home on the same day, and she told the police that she knew why they were speaking to her. She allegedly said, “I was taking money from Dr. Grote’s account.”

 According to the criminal complaint, Mincheski said she had been sending a lot of the money to two men who had told her that they were in the army and that she had been in contact with them on social media sites. She believed one of the men was from Nigeria. She had started an online relationship with the other man and said she had been sending money for him to come and meet her. Mincheski said she was told a trunk of money had been sent to her by the two men and she had full intention of paying the money back to Grote.

Grote said that Mincheski had worked for her for 13 years and had been the office manager for 10 years.

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