Law sentenced to 46 months, 3 years probation

Tammy Law, 33, of Mountain Home was sentenced to 46 months of federal prison follow by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount owed not to exceed $564,215 and a $100 special assessment fee.

Law pleaded guilty June 16 in Boise's federal court to embezzlement of more than $400,000 from the Pioneer Federal Credit Union.

Law had worked at the Mountain Home branch since 1995. In October 2001 she became manager of the collections department and authorities believe she started embezzling funds in mid-2002 until she was caught in March.

Anita Twitchell, president and CEO of Pioneer Credit Union, said managers discovered the embezzling internally during the course of normal business on March 26.

Bank officials notified the Mountain Home Police Department which worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate further.

Mountain Home Police Chief John Walters said the FBI was initially involved because both state and federal government has jurisdiction over the crime.

Walters said the department originally thought the amount embezzled was far less than $400,000 but once the higher dollar amount was determined, letting the federal government proceed with the case became an easy decision.

Law waived her right to a grand jury indictment and agreed on June 6 to plead guilty to a felony charge of embezzlement. She appeared voluntarily in court June 16 to formally enter her guilty plea. She was never arrested.

Twitchell said Law used many different methods and mixed up the way she embezzled money, which enabled her to prolong the time she avoided getting caught. She was able to use her position as a manager and her length of employment at the credit union to facilitate her actions.

The majority of the embezzled funds occurred in the last 18-24 months before she was caught.

Only one credit union member's account was affected by the crime, where she took an undisclosed amount of money. Law had a non-business related connection with that member.

However, Twitchell said the funds embezzled from that account were small in comparison to the credit union funds she misappropriated through the diversion of credit union operating monies and/or assets and the falsification of expense invoices. Those amounts were than channeled by Law, using several fraudulent means, to her for her own personal use.

According to Law's plea agreement, she admitted, for example, that she caused credit union checks to be issued to Magic Valley Collections, which she then presented for payment. That was one of several methods she used to steal from the credit union.

She used the proceeds from the checks for her own personal benefit.

Law was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge.

The sentence will begin in early January.