Fortune Bay Employee Pleads Guilty To Embezzling Over $300,000
A woman who worked at Fortune Bay Casino has plead guilty to embezzlement charges. The Department of Justice says the FBI worked with the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa to investigate the case. According to court documents, Jennifer Lynn Boutto, 32 of Orr, Minnnesota began embezzling money from Fortune Bay Casino in January of 2013. The most recent incident took place in October of 2019.
Boutto began working as a reservationist at Fortune Bay Casino. She later was promoted to Front Desk Supervisor. In that role she was allowed to issue cash refunds to customers without supervision. She used her position to steal money by making fraudulent cash refunds. Boutto would issue the cash refunds against invoices of previous Fortune Bay customers. She would then access the casino's vault and get the falsified refund amount.
The court documents say that this falsified refund scheme was used 2,994 times in the roughly 7 year time period. The exact amount stole is listed as $315,739.87. If you do the math, that's an average of $105.46 per theft. That would average over 30 times a month, but it is unclear in court documents at how frequently the thefts occurred or dollar amounts for each incident.
She has been convicted of Embezzlement and theft of Tribal funds. She entered a guilty plea at a virtual hearing before U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, according to the Duluth News Tribune. The charge could bring a maximum of five years in prison, but a sentencing date has not been scheduled.
She has been allowed to remain free as long as she reports to a probation agent, participates in a presentence investigation report, avoid any contact with casino personnel, refrain from employment with any fiduciary responsibilities, and participate in mental health treatment.