"Vt. worker sentenced in theft of $490,000; Swindled state's program for poor" July 01, 2011|By John Curran, Associated Press
RUTLAND, Vt. - Kathy Lantagne was paid to help the poor. Instead, she helped herself, embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for welfare recipients who needed help to pay for food, housing, and funeral expenses.
Now, the former supervisor for the economic services division of the state Department for Children and Families will have to pay it back after she gets out of prison.
A federal judge sentenced Lantagne yesterday to 33 months in prison and ordered her to pay restitution for the $490,471 she and her sister were convicted of pocketing. Prosecutors said she used her position as a supervisor to get the state to issue more than 250 checks that she and her sister cashed over a five-year period, keeping the proceeds.
Lantagne, 48, of West Charleston, blamed gambling addiction for her actions....
All the more reason not to legalize.
The embezzlement, which occurred from 2004 to 2009, were finally caught when an accountant in the Department's business office in Waterbury noticed irregularities, prompting an audit that identified 76 "suspicious transactions and disbursements" and evidence that in several cases, second and third checks had been cut for the same people's funerals.
Lantagne, a well-respected state employee, was the last person anyone expected to do such a thing, defense attorney Mark Kaplan said in a presentence filing. She has served on a school board, run a corner store, raised money for charities, and volunteered in the community, Kaplan said.
"For her children, friends, coworkers and family, the news of Kathy's involvement with this case left everyone in a state of complete disbelief," Kaplan said. "Kathy Lantagne is the last person who anyone would believe capable of being a taker, of cheating, lying, stealing, and betraying the very people that she had spent a lifetime helping and protecting."
In court yesterday, Lantagne said, "The people in my community deserve an answer and an appropriate consequence. My choice to take the money to gamble seems so irresponsible."
And criminal.
--more--"
Also see:
STOCKBRIDGE, Vt. 10-year-old boy drowns in White River
BURLINGTON, Vt. Trial in case of slain niece begins in March
