In plea deal, Finberg agrees to 10 year prison sentence for Ponzi, embezzlement scheme

A Columbia Falls woman accused of embezzlement and bilking people in a Ponzi scheme has reached a plea deal with state prosecutors that includes a 10-year prison sentence.

According to Flathead County District Court documents, Catherine Ann Finberg agreed to plead no contest Dec. 28 to a felony count of embezzlement, common scheme; guilty to operating a pyramid promotional scheme and guilty to two counts of fraudulent security practices in exchange for the state dropping a charge of failure to register as a securities broker.

Finberg has also agreed to serve a 10 year sentence in Montana State prison, with an additional 30 years suspended.

She also has to pay a total of $1.013 million in restitution and interest, which includes $140,000 she embezzled from a developmentally disabled man in Columbia Falls.

According to the case presented by state auditor’s office, Finberg took money from investors and used it for day trading stocks, but the investments lost money. In turn, she used money from other investors and the disabled man’s account to cover the losses and pay her own bills.

According to the plea agreement, there were 13 local victims in her case. One local couple invested more than $136,000 with her. Finberg grew up in Columbia Falls and was a standout athlete. She most recently was an assistant basketball coach, but resigned before the season started.

The investigation into Finberg began after Columbia Falls Police Department received a complaint of missing money from the developmentally disabled man in January 2016. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also looked into the matter after Glacier Bank notified the agency of possible illegal activity with Finberg’s accounts.

The FBI then notified the state auditor’s office, which took over the investigation.

Since 2008, Finberg allegedly obtained investments of $1,294,300 from more than 18 people, according to court documents, though the number of victims was pared down in the plea agreement. Numerous checks deposited into Finberg’s account listed “day trading” or “investment” in the memo field.

One of the investors was the grandparent of the disabled individual. Investigators found that $44,000 of the grandfather’s money was transferred to Finberg’s account at Interactive Brokers. And Finberg allegedly used $31,000 for her personal use and to pay other investors.

Investigators determined that Finberg typically wired a portion of investment proceeds to the brokerage account and retained some of the money for personal use and to make monthly payments to previous investors — in essence, a Ponzi scheme.

The investigation found that each month, Finberg wrote checks averaging $3,805 to investors, wired an average of $1,950 to pay off a personal Bank of America Credit Card, wired $500 to pay off her personal Chase Bank credit card and paid her $1,730 mortgage.

Finberg has a hearing on the plea agreement in Flathead County District Court on Jan. 25.