Anne Marie Schlenker Sentenced in U.S. District Court

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on June 7, 2011, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, ANNE MARIE SCHLENKER, a 30-year-old resident of Bozeman, appeared for sentencing. SCHLENKER was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 15 months

Special Assessment: $100

Restitution: $265,819.94

Supervised Release: three years (12 months of home arrest)

SCHLENKER was sentenced in connection with her guilty plea to wire fraud.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan M. Archer and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich, who also serves as Chief Legal Counsel to the Montana State Auditor’s Office, Office of the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

SCHLENKER was a financial adviser representative and salesperson for Edward Jones and Company in the Bozeman branch office from May 31, 2004, until her fraud was discovered in February 2010. SCHLENKER used her position at Edward Jones to misappropriate $329,682.15 of client money for her own personal use from October 18, 2006, to November 16, 2009.

SCHLENKER made misrepresentations to clients to have funds wired from her clients’ accounts to her own personal accounts at Wells Fargo, First Horizon, Suntrust, and Citifinancial. For example, SCHLENKER made misrepresentations to have over $50,000 wired from a client’s account to pay for upgrades to a house she was building. Aside from her personal accounts, SCHLENKER also had $11,485.00 wired from a client’s account to a jewelry business in Bozeman to pay off her jewelry debt. At the time, this client was a 72-year-old retiree.

Additionally, SCHLENKER made misrepresentations to have funds moved from one client’s account to pay back another client from whom SCHLENKER had taken money. The total amount returned was $63,862.21, which results in a total fraud loss of $265,819.94.

SCHLENKER ultimately confessed to Edward Jones that she took money from client accounts via unauthorized transactions. Edward Jones terminated her on February 18, 2010.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the truth in sentencing guidelines mandate that SCHLENKER will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, SCHLENKER does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for good behavior. However, this reduction will not exceed 15 percent of the overall sentence.

The investigation and prosecution of ANNE MARIE SCHLENKER was a joint effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Montana State Auditor’s Office, Office of the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.