FORT WORTH, Texas — A Fort Worth woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting she stole $1.3 million from the Stockyards Rodeo over a three year period.
D’Ann Elizabeth Wagner, who was a bookkeeper for the Fort Worth Stockyards Rodeo, used a PayPal account on the organization’s website that was linked to her personal information to commit this crime.
“She’d been an employee there for 18 years,” said Tarrant County Assistant DA Brooke Panuthos. “It was very shocking to see that unfold.”
The account was used for online domestic and international ticket sales and was set up by Wagner. A debit card was issued by PayPal to manage the money received, which Wagner then used for personal use.
Investigators were able to pinpoint more than 11,000 individual transactions that took place between January 2014 and March 2017, totaling more than $1.3 million. She used the money for vacations, gambling, purchasing two Harley-Davidson motorcycles and other unspecified purchases.
“This defendant stole more than 6x the minimum threshold for this first-degree felony charge,” said Panuthos in a statement, “she had 11,000 chances to stop her criminal behavior and stop stealing from employers who trusted her. She showed no conscience and no remorse for her actions.”
Panuthos says, unfortunately, white collar crimes like this one happen all too often.
“Honestly, it happens all the time and it’s not on the victims, it’s on the criminal,” said Panuthos. “And that’s ultimately who’s responsible for this.”
Wagner was sentenced to 15 years in prison.