Marshfield woman steals $115K from federal government

A Marshfield woman pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing more than $115,000 from the federal government.

Kathleen Miner, 64, admitted she stole the funds by claiming wages for work she did not actually perform, according to a news release from the office of Tim Garrison, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Miner worked through staff contracting firm Macfadden for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The agency leads the U.S. response to natural and man-made disasters overseas.

For the OFDA, Miner was deployed through a disaster assistance response team to a foreign country until February 2017 after being hired by Macfadden in October 2006. After returning to the United States, Miner admitted she lied about continuing to work from home on OFDA tasks. She submitted false time sheets to receive roughly $115,647 in wages for work she did not do, according to the release.

On the time sheets, she claimed 1,533 work hours between March 2017 and January 2018.

Under federal statutes, Miner may face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison on the charge of theft of government property, according to the release.