Montana Woman & Family Plead Guilty To Embezzling $132,500 From Municipality

From NBC Montana on 11/25/2014:

A 59-year-old Brockton woman, her husband and two daughters have pleaded guilty to their roles in embezzling more than $132,500 from the town of Brockton on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.
  
Desiree Lambert pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Great Falls to fraud, embezzlement and aggravated identity theft. Her 66-year-old husband Bernard Lambert and adult daughters Kaycee and Kayla pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting Desiree's embezzlement.
  
Desiree Lambert was the business manager for the Town of Brockton. Prosecutors say in December 2012 Desiree Lambert began writing municipal checks payable to herself and family members and forged the mayor's signature on the checks. The money was used for gambling and to supplement the family's lifestyle.
  
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris scheduled sentencing for March 5.


Update (3/15/2015): Lambert and her husband and two daughters sentenced for embezzling from the town of Brockton.  From the Associated Press:

Four members of a Montana family have been sentenced to federal prison on charges related to the embezzlement of more than $132,500 from the town of Brockton on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

Desiree Lambert — the town's 59-year-old former business manager — received a term of almost four years during a recent hearing in Great Falls before U.S. District Judge Brian Morris. She pleaded guilty in November to fraud, embezzlement and aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors say she forged the mayor's signature to write municipal checks payable to herself and family members.

Authorities said the family spent the money for gambling and household items.

Lambert's husband, Bernard, received a 20-month term with three years of supervised release.
Daughters Kaycee, 35, received six months in prison followed by six months in home confinement and Kayla, 30, received five months in prison followed by five months in home confinement. The three had previously pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the embezzlement.

To conceal the theft, Lambert told prosecutors, she transferred into municipal accounts nearly $130,000 in federal money the town received to augment its public safety budget.

The embezzlement came two years after Lambert and her husband were released from probation in a 2007 conviction in another embezzlement case in which $12,000 was taken from the Fort Peck Tribe.

Lambert, then the director of the Fort Peck Department of Education, provided checks to her husband, who was then superintendent of the Brockton School District, supposedly to write 10 grant applications on behalf of the education department. The applications were never turned in and the Lamberts provided no proof they were ever written, prosecutors said.

Desiree and Bernard Lambert were each sentenced to a year in prison in the case. Desiree Lambert was ordered to pay nearly $14,000 in restitution and her husband was ordered to repay $12,000.

The couple acknowledged that $8,500 of the $12,000 went to pay tuition for daughter Kayla, who planned to play basketball at the University of Montana but didn't pass enough classes to join the Lady Griz.