Former Secretary-Treasurer of Ponca Tribe Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement from Tribe
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 21, 2011 |
OKLAHOMA CITY—CHERYL L. ROUGHFACE, 50, of Ponca City, Oklahoma, pled guilty to embezzlement from the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.
According to court records, Roughface was the secretary-treasurer of the Ponca Tribe who on October 25, 2007, wrote a check to herself from the tribal account in the amount of $2,500 for which there was no authorization or legitimate expense of the tribe. At sentencing, Roughface could be sentenced up to five years in federal prison, be fined up to $250,000, and pay mandatory restitution to the Tribe. The United States asserts that restitution to the tribe should be $22,715.
This case was the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Black.