Former Camp Fire USA exec sentenced to 51 months

Former Camp Fire USA exec sentenced to 51 months for embezzlement

A former Camp Fire USA executive director will serve two consecutive sentences totaling 51 months after he pleaded guilty to stealing more than $390,000 from the nonprofit for his gambling addictions.

Michael Woodson Burney, 54, was sentenced Thursday after he pleaded guilty in September to one count of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

He also was ordered by Judge Robert Junell to pay back the Camp Fire agency $370,987.56 and the Stonington Insurance Co. $20,000 in restitution.

Burney, who worked for the nonprofit organization from 2000 to 2009, began writing numerous checks to himself in June 2007 and signing Camp Fire board members' names to them.

He then would deposit the money into his personal checking accounts, according to the indictment.

The indictment also alleges Burney created fictitious invoices and altered the organization's monthly bank statements using Camp Fire's computer-based accounting software.

During sentencing Thursday afternoon, Burney turned to the five volunteers and staff of Camp Fire sitting in the federal courtroom and said his co-workers had treated him well during his employment.

"I hope that at sometime they'll be able to accept my apology and I hope it doesn't hurt you too badly with your stake holders," he said.

Burney, wearing an orange jumpsuit, turned to face his mother and told the court he knows she had raised him better than this.

He asked Junell to consider the 25 years he has spent working with nonprofits -- he worked with the Boys and Girls Club before joining Camp Fire -- and the time he has spent trying to reconcile with Camp Fire board members and volunteers and his friends and family, all of whom he has disappointed.

Defense attorney Spencer Dobbs, of Odessa, told the court Burney suffered from depression and his gambling addiction was the only way he could cope with it. He previously was in therapy for his addiction, but when he moved to Odessa to become director of the Boys and Girls Club, there was no local Gamblers Anonymous group to join and he fell back into old habits.

"He's extremely sorry for what he's done and eager to serve his sentence and begin paying restitution as he's able to do so," Dobbs said.

Camp Fire president Mike Morgan spoke on behalf of the victims who were affected by Burney's actions, saying that the 450 children who participate could have been in better programs "if Mr. Burney had not made the money his own.

"We ask that you send a message to those who choose to steal from nonprofits that this type of crime doesn't pay," he told Junell.

Burney was sentenced to 27 months for the bank fraud charge and 24 months for the aggravated identity theft charge. He will be sent to a prison near Fort Worth, where Junell also recommended he receive mental health treatment and counseling for gambling addictions.

Upon his release, he is ordered to continue to attend both treatment sessions and cannot open a new line of credit or take a job working with finances without consent from his probation officer.

Morgan told the Reporter-Telegram that while the West Texas Council of Camp Fire did suffer from the loss of the money Burney stole, it is not continuing to suffer. Presently, more children than ever before are enrolled in their programs.

The organization also opened two new campus sites this year in Odessa.