Woman guilty in Bigfork fraud case
A Bigfork woman was sentenced Thursday, after pleading guilty to felony wire fraud after stealing over $35,000 from Mountain Lake Lodge in Woods Bay.
Rhonda Candler Sandon-Dominick was given three years of probation and ordered to pay $41,477.94 in restitution, as well as a $100 assessment, according to court documents.
Dominick started working at Mountain Lake Lodge in 2004 and eventually became the front desk manager. Between 2009 and 2013 she issued unauthorized credit card refunds to herself and family members through Mountain Lake Lodge for expenses that were not incurred, according to court documents. The Lodge discovered the embezzlement when the company that processes its credit card transactions reported an excessive number of refunds to two cards in particular, which belonged to Dominick’s daughters, records show.
Mountain Lake Lodge’s insurance company hired an accounting firm to perform an audit, which revealed that that Dominick had issued unauthorized credit refunds in the amount of $34,964.47 and cash refunds in the amount of $1,707.48, court documents said.
Mountain Lake Lodge also concluded that Dominick had provided family members with unauthorized gift certificates and let them stay and eat at the lodge for free, though officials were unable to determine how much money was lost as a result. The lodge incurred further expenses, including attorney’s fees and the deductible on their insurance policy after discovering Dominick’s fraud, totaling their loss to $41,477.94, court documents said.
When interviewed by a Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy and a secret service agent in November 2013 she admitted to processing fraudulent refunds, documents said. She also admitted to using the money from those refunds to pay some of her living expenses and said she was trying to “do something nice for her children,” documents said. Dominick has three children and two-step children.
Dominick was charged with wire fraud in September 2014 and entered into a plea agreement on the single count of felony wire fraud.
Documents stated Dominick must pay $14,150 immediately to Mountain Lake Lodge, with the remaining balance to be paid in an amount of not less that $759.11 a month. Dominick is ordered to pay a total of $16,477.94 to the lodge, and another $25,000 in insurance reimbursement to Unigard Insurance Group.
Dominick had no prior criminal history.