A former director of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission is scheduled for arraignment on fraud and theft charges. Teresa Judkins of Barrow, age 51, is accused of stealing more than $100,000 from the organization during a two-year period.
A federal grand jury indicted Judkins on charges of theft and misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal grant money.
Judkins is accused of fraudulently using commission funds to buy herself a snowmobile, take payroll advances she never repaid and paying for travel for herself and relatives unrelated to her duties.
The Eskimo Whaling Commission, which gets much of its funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce, is meant to protect Eskimo subsistence hunting of bowhead whales.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
