Missoula woman sentenced for embezzling almost $40K

Missoula woman sentenced for embezzling $40K

The Missoulian ( http://bit.ly/w8R4Jh) reports Kathy Linde Bordner told police she took the money to feed a gambling addiction. She pleaded guilty in November.

Missoula woman sentenced for embezzling almost $40K from employer
By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian


A woman who embezzled nearly $40,000 from her employer was sentenced to 12 years in prison, all deferred, in front of Missoula District Court Judge Karen Townsend on Tuesday morning.

Kathy Linde Bordner must also serve 30 days in the Missoula County Detention facility and repay her former employer more than $37,000.

A former employee of The UPS Store in downtown Missoula, Bordner wrote checks on her children's bank accounts to cover daily cash withdrawals, altered the business' bank deposits and pocketed cash payments from customers to feed her gambling addiction.

Bordner pleaded not guilty to the charge in January 2011, but changed her plea last November. She has never been jailed on the charge.

The store's owner, Laura Vercruyssen, began investigating Bordner's activities after a customer complained of receiving failure-to-pay notices from the business. That customer repeatedly asked to see Bordner, believing her to be the owner.

In May 2010, Vercruyssen met several times with Missoula police officers, who recommended she try to document the thefts. Within two days, Vercruyssen found evidence of around $6,000 having been stolen. Officers then advised her to hire a forensic accountant for a thorough vetting of her books. The accountant, Heidi Foley, not only determined how much had been stolen - $38,861 - but also how it disappeared from The UPS Store till.

Among Bordner's schemes:

• She used checks from her family's accounts, including her children's, to cover cash taken from bank deposits, or used customer checks she had been holding. That accounted for $8,977.

• Bordner wrote a high number of "cash paid outs" from the store till. Normally used for lunches or small office supplies, those payouts amounted to $2,868.

• Bordner falsified numerous returns and discounts paid to customers for merchandise and shipping services, when in fact the inventory was dwindling and the packages were shipped. That amounted to $14,729. When interviewed by police, Bordner admitted to numerous incidences of theft, and claimed she had a severe gambling problem she was trying to hide from her husband.



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