(Credit: Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Following the news in October 2018 that Jennifer McCain-Bray, former Las Vegas Valley Water District employee, had pleaded guilty to a multi-million-dollar cartridge scheme, she has now been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson.
As the Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported, the 43-year-old was involved in an 8-year scheme, involving the stealing and selling of over $6.7 million (€5.8 million) worth of ink and toner cartridges from her workplace.
She has now been sentenced to 51 months imprisonment and has also been “ordered to pay back the money she made from the long-running scheme”, though the judge waived IRS restitution payments and fines.
In court, McCain-Bray described her deeds as being motivated by “greed”, which led to her suffering from “depression, anxiety and an addiction to prescription pain medication.”
Her attorney, Louis Palazzo, told the court that she “deserved leniency” due to her previous absence of a criminal record and her difficulties with both “addiction and mental illness.”
However, federal prosecutor Patrick Burns said her sentence was justified due to the “duration and scope of her scheme”, as well as her “dishonest conduct” in dealing with the FBI during the investigation of her “theft ring”.
A spokesman for Las Vegas Valley Water District, Bronson Mack, said its purchasing procedures for office supplies had been “strengthened” following the discovery of the scheme. The district has also since recovered $3 million (€2.6 million) of McCain-Bray’s theft-related earnings due to an insurance policy covering employee crime.
