The Eagle River woman convicted of stealing more than $150,000 from the Mustang Hockey Association was sentenced by Judge Timothy M Burgess in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
34-year-old Jennifer Suchan, also known as Jennifer Kerr was sentenced to 14 months and three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a total of $170,353 in restitution for her conviction.
Suchan was the treasurer of the Eagle River non-profit youth hockey organization when she began stealing from the organization. U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder said in a Tuesday statement, “Suchan began forging the signature of another board member to write herself checks on the Association’s bank account. Suchan falsely noted the checks were for office supplies, reimbursements, tax payments, and professional services, among other things. She actually used the money she obtained by forging the checks to pay for purchases such as a $1,500 chicken coop, trips for her family to Disneyland and Alyeska, payments on her BMW, and mortgage payments on her house, among other things.”
During the two and a half years that she carried out her scheme, Suchan forged over 140 checks to herself that totaled over $150,000. In addition to those monies, Suchan did not document what an additional $7,353 worth of checks were for. It was also stated in court that Suchan also withdrew at least $14,000 in cash from the bank account of the organization.
The Anchorage Police Department was alerted to the approximately $180,000 in missing cash from the non-profit on June 19th, 2017 when a member of the non-profit hockey club took a look at the books and saw the transactions that should not have taken place.
A felony warrant was issued in the case and Suchan was arrested by property crimes detectives on June 26th.
While the warrant was issued for Theft I and Scheme to Defraud, the final guilty pleas were for three counts of wire fraud.
The FBI assisted APD in the investigation that led to Suchan’s conviction.