Ex Wekweètì SAO, Whatì housing employee convicted for scam

Key takeaways: 

• Woman, 49, says she was personally cheated $103K by overseas crooks.
• The previous week, RCMP laid eight accusations against Grace Maria Angel — four connecting to her time as a senior administrative officer in Wekweètı̀ and four relating to her time as manager of the Whatı̀ Housing Authority.

A woman who worked as a senior administrator for Wekweètì’s neighborhood government and after the Northwest Territories housing corporation will serve a one-year verdict for cheating both employers to $13,000.

Grace Maria Angel, 49, rose briefly to speak, “I’m sorry,” her voice breaking after hearing attorneys recount how she cheated the Tłı̨chǫ government of $5,084, fraudulently reserved $1,311 in flights on the housing corporation’s Air Tindi accounts and robbed $6,800 in cash rent payments.

She will reimburse the money in $300 monthly installments beginning in July.

Angel will serve the first six months of her ruling on house arrest and the remaining six with rigid conditions, including a 10 p.m. curfew and regularly reporting to a probation officer.

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The court heard from Crown attorney Matthew Scott that Angel worked for the Wekweètì community government from 2010 until 2016, where she was liable for handling large sums of money and had “poor record-keeping.”

As for SAO, Angel was making purchases on her credit card and being refunded for significant amounts by the community government, which did not have a credit card. An audit disclosed that Angel was returned with receipts for more than $263,533 in legitimate payments. 

But by 2016, “problems arose” for Wekweètì council members regarding how Angel managed the band’s money. They launched a partial forensic audit.

They found purchases, like a bill from Quality Furniture for $5,084 for a queen bed and stand, a coffee table, and a dining room table which Angel had delivered to a Yellowknife address.

Source – cbc.ca