A federal judge sentenced former accountant Ashley Viken to 11 months in prison for stealing nearly $120,000 from South Dakota’s largest credit union.
In addition, U.S. District Court Judge Camela C. Theeler ordered Viken during her sentencing hearing on Feb. 10 to pay $50,000 to the $2.2 billion Black Hills Federal Credit Union (BHFCU) in Rapid City and $69,085 to TruStage in Madison, Wis. Following her prison sentence, she will be required to complete five years of supervised release.
In August, Viken was indicted on one felony count of bank fraud and 28 felony counts of theft by a credit union employees. She pleaded guilty in November to one felony count of bank fraud and six felony counts of theft by a credit union employee. In exchange for her guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed to drop 23 felony counts of theft by a credit union employee, court documents showed.
Beginning in July 2022 and continuing through March 2024, Viken wrote cashier’s checks on a Black Hills account and then deposited those checks into her accounts at two small South Dakota credit unions, prosecutors said.
Using her access to BHFCU cashier’s checks and the expired cashier’s check general ledger account, Viken falsely documented that she reissued the cashier’s checks or refunded them to credit union members, according to court documents.
Over 20 months, Viken deposited 29 cashier’s checks totaling $119,085 into her accounts at the small credit unions.
Although she spent the funds to benefit her and a family member, court documents did not specify how the former credit union employee spent the funds or on what.
The document posted on the federal docket, which included Viken’s statement that she made during the sentencing hearing, was sealed from the public’s view. The letters in support of the former credit union accountant also were sealed from the public’s view.
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