Finance manager spent and gambled with $278K stolen from crisis center, officials say
A former crisis center manager accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization to fund her “gambling addiction” and personal expenses has been sentenced to jail time, Oklahoma officials said.
Deanna Rachel Long, 59, was sentenced to serve 12 months and one day in prison for tax evasion and bank fraud, according to a July 24 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
Long was also ordered to three years of supervised release and to pay $374,879.54 in restitution, officials said.
“Ms. Long accepted full responsibility for her actions, which occurred several years ago (2014-2018),” Long’s attorney Stanley Monroe told McClatchy News on July 25.
“During the time of these unfortunate events, Ms. Long was going through a lot of personal and family problems and she became addicted to gambling, spending lots of money in the casino to escape her problems. Since charges were initially filed in Washington County in 2019, which were dismissed due to the federal authorities involvement, Ms. Long has stayed away from casinos and has begun receiving treatment for her compulsive gambling. She intends to begin paying restitution upon her release from custody,” Monroe said.
Court records say Long was hired in 2012 as a manager for the Family Crisis and Counseling Center in Bartlesville, which was previously “the only domestic/sexual violence and stalking agency in the 15th judicial district,” according to the agency’s website.
Before permanently and abruptly closing in 2018, the agency was funded by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, the Oklahoma Office of Attorney General, federal grants, the Bartlesville Regional United Way and donations.
Long managed or was directly involved in many aspects of the agency’s financial and accounting practices, such as paying bills and preparing checks for business expenses, according to officials.
Within two years, Long began embezzling from the crisis center by preparing unauthorized checks from the agency’s bank account and making them payable to herself, officials said.
As part of the scheme, she also prevented the agency from reporting those funds to the Internal Revenue Service, officials said.
In total, Long embezzled $278,257.54 from her employer and used it to “fund personal expenses and fuel her gambling addiction,” officials said.
She also failed to file tax returns for tax years 2014 through 2022, according to court documents.
Officials said Long has a history of passing fake checks and pleaded guilty twice for embezzling from former employers.
Bartlesville is about a 45-mile drive north from Tulsa.
This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Finance manager spent and gambled with $278K stolen from crisis center, officials say."
