Bad Gamble

US v. Island, No. 08-6111, 3/19/09 (unpublished)- Sufficient evidence supported convictions for misdemeanor embezzlements and felony conspiracy to embezzle. Defendant ran day-today operations of tribal gaming account, and wrote checks from the account at the direction of her boss, who was chairman of the 8-member business committee. Defendant, boss and another committee member took trips to Vegas and Albuquerque. She got wire transfers during these trips in the total amount of $15,000. Jury could reasonably find that there was a meeting of the minds among all three to embezzle tribal funds, and aggregating the misdemeanor amounts of each transfer into a felony amount for conspiracy was proper because obtaining the total amount was the objective of the conspiracy, which is a separate crime.