Former C-Falls woman nabbed making fake notes, bad checks

A former Columbia Falls woman who admitted to defrauding Montana victims by creating and cashing fraudulent checks was sentenced last week to two years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said last week in a release.

Joanna Marie Snyder, 59, of Boston, Massachusetts, and formerly of Columbia Falls, pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud.

U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presided. The court also ordered $7,299 restitution.

The government alleged in court documents that in September and October 2019, Snyder engaged in a scheme to create counterfeit $20 Federal Reserve notes and obtained the identities and bank account information of Montana victims to create and cash fraudulent checks.

An investigation found 19 fraudulently cashed checks drawn off a hospitality account associated with a Kalispell business. Several of the hospitality checks were made out to Snyder and had been deposited into accounts owned by Snyder at the Whitefish Credit Union.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case. The U.S. Secret Service, Polson Police Department, Kalispell Police Department, Columbia Falls Police Department and Flathead County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation.