Former Ponca Tribe Accountant Sentenced for Embezzling from Tribe
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 03, 2011 |
OKLAHOMA CITY—Today, THOMASINE ARKEKETA, 57, from Ponca City, Oklahoma, was sentenced by United States District Judge Joe Heaton to serve 24 months’ probation, with 180 days of home detention and electronic monitoring, for embezzling funds from the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. In addition, Judge Heaton ordered that Arkeketa pay restitution to the tribe in the amount of $27,125.89.
Arkeketa was an accountant for the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and admitted that on October 25, 2007, she wrote a check to herself in the amount of $2,500 from the tribal account for her own personal benefit. Arkeketa pled guilty on March 31, 2011.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The case was being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Black.