Prosecutors, on Wednesday, sentenced a former Stockyards Rodeo bookkeeper to 15 years of prison time for embezzling over $1.3 million.
D’Ann Elizabeth Wagner, 40, pleaded guilty to the charge of theft of property over $200,000 to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, whose White Collar Crime team investigated the case.
Wagner admitted to investigators that she was skimming money from a PayPal account that she had set up on the organization’s website. The account was used for online domestic and international ticket sales.
According to prosecutors, Wagner had linked her own personal information to that PayPal account. From January 2014 to March 2017, over 11,000 individual transactions took place.
Wagner would use the associated debit card to take out money for her personal use, which included numerous vacations, gambling at WinStar Casino and buying two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, among other purchases.
“This defendant stole more than 6x the minimum threshold for this first-degree felony charge,” prosecutor Brooke Panuthos said in a press release. “She had 11,000 chances to stop her criminal behavior and stop stealing from employers who trusted her. She showed no conscience and no remorse for her actions.”