(Washington, D.C.) – Tamara Kukla, who worked as the “Director of Membership” for
a Washington based non-profit organization, has been sentenced to a year and a day in
prison for embezzling nearly $250,000 from her employer, announced Brian J. Ebert,
Special Agent in Charge, Washington Field Office, U.S. Secret Service and U.S.
Attorney Channing D. Phillips.
Kukla, 47, of Plano, Texas, pled guilty in November 2016, in the U.S. District Court
for the District of Columbia, to interstate transportation of stolen property. The
Honorable James E. Boasberg sentenced her on April 4, 2017. Kukla will be placed on
three years of supervised release following completion of her prison term. She also
must pay $248,755 in restitution and an identical amount in a forfeiture money
judgment.
According to the government’s evidence, Kukla’s employer provided her with a credit
card to assist her with her duties and responsibilities as the “Director of Membership.”
Kukla’s duties and responsibilities included, among others, formulating and executing
marketing plans designed to maintain and increase her employer’s membership rolls.
Beginning around October 2009 and continuing through about December 2011, Kukla
devised and carried out a scheme to defraud her employer by embezzling funds
through her corporate credit card. Kukla used the credit card for both legitimate and
personal purchases, but provided false descriptions of the personal purchases as workrelated
expenses so that her employer would pay for them. These unauthorized
purchases and expenses included, among others, personal expenses related to travel,
transportation, hotel lodgings, retail purchases, meals, food, and entertainment. Kukla
also devised a scheme whereby she caused her employer to pay for thousands of
dollars in expenses for personal services from two different private companies.
In announcing the sentence, Special Agent in Charge Ebert and U.S. Attorney Phillips
commended the work of those who investigated the case from the National Capitol
Region Fraud Task Force of the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office. They
also expressed appreciation for the efforts of those who worked on the matter for the
U.S. Attorney’s Office.