A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Springfield:
FORMER STATE CORRECTIONS ACCOUNTANT SENTENCED
Springfield, Ill. – U.S. District Judge Sue E. Myerscough today sentenced Mary Ann Bohlen, 47, a former Illinois Department of Corrections employee, to serve 21 months in federal prison for embezzlement.
Bohlen was also ordered to pay restitution of $27,174 to the Illinois Department of Corrections and $23,540 to the Illinois Correctional Employees Memorial Association.
Bohlen was ordered to self-report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving her sentence on a date to be determined by the Bureau of Prisons.
Bohlen, of Edinburg, Ill., pled guilty in February 2013 to embezzlement from various department funds over a period of four years, from 2007 to 2011.
Bohlen waived indictment and pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and two counts of embezzlement of government funds as charged in an information filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of
U.S. Attorney James Lewis
According to court documents, Bohlen was employed from February 2004 until Feb. 15, 2012, as Assistant Deputy Director and Supervisor of Central Accounting for the Division of Fiscal Accounting Compliance.
In her position, Bohlen had access to various financial accounts and funds including the Inmate Benefit Fund, Inmate Commissary Fund, and the Reimbursement and Education Fund.
In April 2006, Bohlen became treasurer of the Illinois Correctional Employees Memorial Association, an organization of IDOC employees formed to recognize and memorialize IDOC employees who were killed or suffered permanent disability in the line of duty.
Bohlen actively solicited employees to become members of the association, which was funded by membership fees, fundraisers and donations.
Bohlen admitted that from June 2007 to July 2011, she embezzled more than $50,000 from the Illinois Correctional Employees Memorial Association.
From March 2008 to April 2011, Bohlen embezzled more than $27,000 from other various funds, including the Inmate Benefit Fund, Inmate Commissary Fund, and the Reimbursement and Education Fund, to conceal and replace the funds she had embezzled from the Memorial Association.
Bohlen admitted that she wrote more than $50,000 worth of checks drawn on the Memorial Associations’ bank account which were payable to herself, to cash, and to a business in Owaneco, Ill., where she was an employee, partner or accountant.
The charges were investigated by the Illinois State Police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Harris prosecuted the case.