Online Gambling Embezzler Gets 9 Years

Published: Friday, January 19, 2007 Online-Casinos.com

ONLINE GAMBLING EMBEZZLER GETS NINE YEARS

Lawyer pays the price for $900 000 "modern-day grave robbing" offences


State conservator Jennifer Ann Wenger (53) paid a high price for her sins in an Orange County Court this week when she was sentenced to nine years in prison for committing an aggravated white collar fraud on a deceased estate (see previous Online-Casinos.coin & InfoPowa reports)

Wenger, who embezzled more than $900 000 from the estate of an Orange County woman to feed an Internet gambling addiction, pleaded guilty to three felony embezzlement charges, tax evasion and an "enhancement" for committing aggravated white-collar crime.

Arrested last month, she was originally charged with 73 counts of embezzlement and faced 56 years in prison if found guilty. She was arrested last month on suspicion of stealing funds from the estate of Goldie Carlova, who died in April 2004 at the age of 92.

As part of a plea agreement, Wenger was ordered to pay restitution.

"We have to set an example with this case because she had a position of public trust and she violated that trust" said Orange County Deputy District Attorney Marc Labreche. "This crime was no less than modern-day grave robbing."

According to the investigation, from 2004 to 2006, Wenger wrote 65 checks to herself from Carlova's estate, as well as depositing eight annuity checks into her personal account.

Prosecutors said Wenger deposited most of the embezzled money into online accounts in foreign countries and used it for Internet gambling. She also used $73 700 from Carlova's estate to reimburse a separate estate in San Bernardino County from which money was missing and for which she was also the conservator, the District Attorney's office said.