Former Anderson city clerk sentenced for embezzling over $140K
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A former city clerk for a small Interior Alaska community was sentenced Tuesday for embezzling over $140,000 in funds from the city’s bank account.
The Department of Law charged 37-year-old Trista Nichole Jennings with first-degree theft and scheme to defraud — both felony charges — in May 2023 after it was discovered that Jennings had stolen $141,859.17 during her time as city clerk, beginning in 2018 for the community that sits along the Parks Highway between the towns of Healy and Nenana.
According to a state press release, Jennings took a plea deal with Superior Court Judge Kirk Schwalm to serve three years in jail with half of that (18 months) suspended. Jennings will also be placed on probation for the duration of the three years.
The department states that Anderson Mayor Samantha Thomson filed a report saying all of the city’s bank accounts had been emptied “over the previous couple years,” telling Alaska State Troopers that Jennings was the one who did it.
In a redacted complaint filed by Thomson, a city accountant said she had been unable to access four bank accounts for the city for around six months and was given “multiple excuses” from Jennings on why that was.
A state trooper affidavit supporting the complaint said that the theft was discovered when Jennings wrote personal checks to multiple city accounts that initially bounced before the bank credited the accounts for the amount of each check before it cleared. The affidavit said each check Jennings wrote was for larger and larger amounts.
Jennings reportedly transferred funds from each cashed check before it was denied, the affidavit said.
“Trista would then write a more significant amount that covered the original check and have extra,” the statement said. “She would then transfer those credited funds for the new check before the bank discovered insufficient funds to cover it.”
The affidavit also noted that Jennings hid transactions from other city employees to ensure the theft would not show up during city council meetings, which investigators looked into by checking meeting minutes.
Troopers found Jennings at her home on May 16, 2023, and when asked why she transferred over $100,000 into her own accounts, she told them she did not know why, but that it was “to get stuff done.” The affidavit states that Jennings used the money to “get stuff done on the house” when she and her husband were not making enough money.
Troopers also claim to have found “several TVs, gaming consoles, two all-in-one computers, two laptops, and a [3D] printer.”
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