Woman Sentenced For Embezzling Half Million From Poarch Creek Indians
August 25, 2017
An Atmore woman has been sentenced in federal court for embezzling a half million dollars from the Poarch Creek Indians.
U.S. District Judge William H. Steele sentenced Carolyn Dortch, 54, of Atmore, to five years of probation for embezzling funds from the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. The Court ordered that Dortch serve the first six months of her sentence on home confinement with electronic monitoring and imposed a credit restriction. The court also ordered Dortch to make restitution totaling $502,173.35 and to pay a $100 special assessment.
From around 2010 until October 2016, Dortch was employed as the senior services director for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. She led the Seniors Active in Learning Center, which provided numerous activities for seniors such as meals on wheels, games, crafts, and trips. Dortch was responsible for purchasing food and supplies and for handling tribal money on senior trips. In October 2016, the tribe discovered Dortch had been misusing her position of employment and submitting falsified receipts representing fictitious purchases. An investigation revealed that Dortch had been embezzling funds from the tribe and using these funds for personal gain.
In January 2017, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama charged Dortch in a one-count information, alleging that over a four-year period ending in 2016, Dortch embezzled tribal funds. Dortch pled guilty to the offense in a hearing before Judge Steele.
Comments
11 Responses to “Woman Sentenced For Embezzling Half Million From Poarch Creek Indians”
Dont miss the $100 “special assessment”
Thats gotta bite
LOL
What a joke
If she was smart enough to pull off such a heist over 5 years, she was smart enough to hide the money abroad or under her mattress. She does not need to worry about her good reputation to land another job – she has more than enough resources to live comfortable for the rest of her life. Like in most cases an order for restitution is just a worthless piece of paper that can and will not be enforced. .
54 years and she has totaled her life! sounds like a dream job too! Businesses do not want to hire older people and this is a huge mistake! First, we can only make a certain sum or will have have to defer SS. Second, thankful for the extra money, we would never dream of stealing from those giving us the chance to be employed and we are very smart, very experienced people.
@Lolly
How do we know that the woman in this story is not “Native American”? Assume much? Btw seems the tribe made it to easy for this woman to take from them.
This is Wonderful and there are more !!!
Five years probation? And they say crime doesn’t pay(insert sarcasm)
probation?? I need a job application asap…
History still repeating itself, the Indians are still getting robbed, and not just from the crooks. There are a lot of people trying to get there hands on the tribe’s prosperity – the sense of entitlement by non tribal entities is sickening. Many taking advantage of the tribe’s generosity, and this headline thief got off easy.
Why didn’t she go to prison where she belongs?
she must have a well paying work from home job!!
Wow, half a million! I guess the restitution means the money was lost, is gone, never to be recovered. Somebody up the line really dropped the ball to ever have let this happen. About 125K a year, and nobody noticed, unbelievable! Credit restriction!?! Ms. Dortch pays cash for most everything I bet.