Court tries to tally money stolen from whaling commission – More Tails of the AFF Travel Fund?
Federal prosecutors said a former director of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, who pleaded guilty in May to stealing commission funds, spent some of the more than $420,000 she embezzled on her and her husband’s gambling. “Some of the money is money that was consistent with (the commission’s) purpose but not technically approved by a particular grant,” Fitzgerald said. But Ahmaogak and her husband, former North Slope Borough Mayor George Ahmaogak, spent thousands of dollars gambling at casinos in the Caribbean, New Orleans and Las Vegas, according to Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Clinton Wight, who testified Wednesday. Maggie Ahmaogak made cash withdrawals with the commission’s credit card and received fraudulent reimbursements for hotel rooms or plane tickets during or just after the trips, which were paid for by the commission or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Wight said.
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