FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 26, 2007
CONNIE JO JENSEN SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Great Falls, on November 26, 2007, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, CONNIE JO JENSEN, a 37-year-old resident of Great Falls, appeared for sentencing. JENSEN was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 40 months
- Special Assessment: $200
Restitution: Jensen was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $31,000. Although the total loss was over $209,000, Jensen had made substantial repayment on the loss prior to sentencing
- Supervised Release: 5 years
JENSEN was sentenced in connection with her guilty plea to bank and credit card fraud.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
On February 25, 1999, JENSEN began working for a Great Falls dentist, dba Family Dental Center. JENSEN began her employment with the dentist as a dental assistant.
In August of 2003, JENSEN assumed the responsibilities of office manager. As an office manager, her duties included paying Family Dental Center bills, preparing and issuing payroll, reconciling bank and credit accounts, other bookkeeping, and filling purchase orders.
As early as February of 2003, questionable charges appeared on the business credit card accounts, although the initial irregularities and all those that followed were not discovered until a private audit was performed in March and April of 2007. The audit revealed that JENSEN stole over $200,000 from Family Dental Center and the dentist between February 18, 2003, and when she was terminated on March 2, 2007.
JENSEN conceived of and implemented two methods to embezzle monies from the Family Dental Center. With one scheme, JENSEN would either take cash advances off the office MBNA America credit card, or make purchases that were personal and not for office purposes. In the other scheme, accessing the business account at Mountain West Bank in Great Falls, a federally insured bank, JENSEN would have the dentist either sign blank office checks which she would then use to pay personal bills, get cash, or make personal purchases, or she would have the dentist sign checks already completed knowing that he would trust her to only issue checks for the benefit of the business and therefore sign them without additional review.
For the period of the indictment - approximately January of 2004 to March of 2007 - the total loss to the dentist and his business was $204,669.99, or an average of $5,250 per month.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that JENSEN will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, JENSEN does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl E. Rostad prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Great Falls Police Department.
