A Georgia woman who stole more than $240,000 from nonprofits, a local dental office and the Georgia Dental Society has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.
Trenna Denise Trice, 59, of Columbus, Ga., pleaded guilty to wire fraud in December 2021, according to a March 30 news release from the Justice Department.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-Office of the Inspector General began investigating Ms. Trice's financial activities in May 2019 to learn how she was funding her gambling activities at casinos.
Investigators found that her sole source of income was working as a teacher for the Muscogee County School District, but she previously worked for a local dental office and as a volunteer campaign coordinator for the Columbus branch of the United Negro College Fund from 2005-17, during which she organized a major fundraising event. Both organizations had cut ties with Ms. Trice after learning of financial irregularities at their businesses. Ms. Trice also collected donations for SAMARC, a nonprofit run by two former NBA basketball players.
Investigators identified 109 checks and 265 credit card transactions fraudulently deposited into Ms. Trice's accounts. Ms. Trice admitted to having a decade-long gambling addiction and that she had stolen the money to support her gambling addiction and gambling losses.
She was found to have stolen a total of $240,259, including $162,044 from the United Negro College Fund, $70,231 from the dental office, $7,784 from SAMARC and $200 from the Georgia Dental Society.
Ms. Trice received her prison sentence March 29, which will be followed by three years of supervised release and $240,259 in restitution.