Skip to main content
Press Release

Former Executive Director of Daycare in Tama County Sentenced to Federal Prison for Stealing from her Employer

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Iowa
Embezzled, Stole, and Misappropriated More Than $110,000 in Daycare Funds Over Nearly Seven Years

The former director of a daycare in Tama County, Iowa, was sentenced today to eight months of imprisonment.

Kristine Daniel, age 49, from Kellogg, Iowa, received the prison term after an October 31, 2019 guilty plea to theft from a federal program.

At the guilty plea, Daniel admitted she stole money from a daycare operating in Tama County.  She further admitted that the daycare received federal funds as part of its operating budget.  Part of the money she stole from the daycare came from those federal funds. 

Information disclosed at sentencing showed that Daniel stole, embezzled, or misappropriated $113,829.73 from the daycare while she was employed as the Executive Director of the daycare from December 2009 through April 2016.  Daniel obtained the money in various ways.  She misappropriated approximately $33,000 by using daycare credit cards to buy items for her own personal use, including video games, clothing, and home furnishings.  Daniel also issued herself over $34,000 in gross pay to which she was not entitled.  Further, Daniel stole cash payments that parents gave to the daycare to pay for childcare.  She stole over $42,000 in cash payments that she then deposited into her own bank account.  During the time she was stealing from the daycare, Daniel was making approximately $40,000 a year in salary from the daycare.

Daniel was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Daniel was sentenced to eight months’ confinement, four months of which must be spent in prison and four months of which will be spent in home detention.  She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  She was also ordered to pay $113,829.73 in restitution to the daycare.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Daniel was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Tama County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa State Auditor’s Office. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl

The case file number is 19-CR-109.

Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.

 

Updated September 28, 2020

Topic
Financial Fraud