Former nonprofit CFO facing prison in $184K embezzlement
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
September 3, 2009
A former top accountant at a wildlife conservation group is facing more than two years in prison after she admitted to using the group's credit card for $184,000 in makeup, casino junkets -- and a really expensive birthday cake.
Wendy Mansfield was supposed to have been sentenced by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Wednesday, but the judge postponed Mansfield's judgment day until Sept. 17.
Mansfield had been the chief financial officer of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, an international conservation group based in D.C. In February, she agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud, admitting that she helped herself to the association's credit card for more than four years, wracking up tens of thousands of dollars in meals, hair and makeup expenses, and cash advances at casinos. She also bought a lavish birthday cake at a local specialty shop and then, unhappy with the results, demanded a cash refund -- which she pocketed, court papers state.
The youngest of 11 children, Mansfield started as an accountant at the association in 1999 and worked her way to the top of the organization. Her numerous relatives and friends describe her in letters to the judge as hard-working, dedicated to her family and generous with the needy.
Her husband, Charles Mansfield, was a computer wizard with top-secret clearance at the State Department who retired early to start his own real estate firm. The couple have put their two children, 8 and 17, through private schools.
In her letter to Kollar-Kotelly, Wendy Mansfield said she had "sincere regret and remorse" for "abusing the level of trust and responsibility."
"I'm a very good person with a very good heart who made a very bad decision and I have had an opportunity to reflect on my decision and I am now paying for my bad decision everyday," she wrote. "I would like to ask you to please give me another chance."
Wendy Mansfield went to prison Wednesday for using her business card to rack up more than $184,000 in personal expenses:
» Hair and makeup: $5,800
» Food: $26,000
» Cell phone bills: $8,000
» Casinos: $24,000
» Birthday cake: $1,800
