State prosecutors have charged a former Alaska resident with nearly 150 felony counts for an alleged Permanent Fund Dividend fraud scheme.
An arrest warrant for 44-year-old Sheila Mary Rose McMahon was issued after last week’s grand jury indictment, which includes 15 pages just listing the charges against her. But it’s unclear where McMahon actually lives now. She was still on the loose as of Tuesday.
McMahon is accused of making false statements on multiple PFD applications for three years’ worth of dividends and theft of the money she allegedly received. According to the indictment, McMahon provided fake documents, including employment information from abitoblarney.com.
Abitoblarney.com appears to be an online Irish gift shop. State records show McMahon registered it as a business with an address at a Midtown Anchorage apartment building. The website itself only lists locations in Atlanta, Georgia and Dublin, Ireland.
In a written statement, state prosecutors said fewer than 15 of the 71 applications McMahon filed were for real people, and the rest of the identities were either partially or wholly fabricated. She allegedly received more than $17,000 dollars of the nearly $80,000 she tried to get from the permanent fund.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him atcgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Caseyhere.
