A Federal court is trying to determine how much money a former director of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission needs to repay after embezzling funds and spending it on gambling trips and luxury items. Maggie Ahmaogak pleaded guilty to stealing more than $420,000 from the federally-funded commission in May. According to the Anchorage Daily News, the court is now trying to sort out the complicated mixture of checks she wrote to herself and sometimes to other commissioner in an attempt to figure out what counted as legitimate expenses. Federal prosecutors say bad bookkeeping made some of the embezzlement possible. At one point Ahmaogak filled out a timesheet saying she worked more hours during a two-week period than actually elapse over two weeks. The sentencing hearing will continue next week.
Anne Hillman is the healthy communities editor at Alaska Public Media and a host of Hometown, Alaska. Reach her atahillman@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Annehere.
