Woman Gets 12 Months for Stealing From Golden Valley Company

A Shoreview woman recently was sentenced to a year and one day in prison for stealing from her Golden Valley employer.

hired Kimberly Dana Swenson in 2002. She was a client services specialist, according to a news release from Jeanne F. Cooney, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota.

Swenson, 38, admitted that from 2008 to 2010 she embezzled $421,150, according to Cooney.

"In order to obtain the funds, Swenson made false and misleading statements and representations to her employer," Cooney's statement said. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Dixon charged Swenson on March 11, 2011, and she pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud on April 18, 2011," according to Cooney. U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty presided over the sentencing on Aug. 9.

According to an article by David Hanners for TwinCities.com, at the sentencing Swenson apologized to Allianz, its policyholders, her husband and her parents.

"Shopping was a high for myself," she said, according to Hanners. "Through all of this, I have learned that I can be happy with the basics."

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and U.S. Postal Inspection Service, according to Cooney.

"The judge also ordered the unemployed Swenson to pay $425,669 restitution at the rate of $250 a month, a pace that will require more than 141 years to repay," Hanners wrote.