United States Attorney John C. Richter

Western District of Oklahoma

October 24, 2008

CONTACT: Bob Troester

                405/553-8999

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO DEFRAUDING HER OKLAHOMA EMPLOYER AND IS SENTENCED TO ADDITIONAL YEAR IN PRISON

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, announced that KATHERYNE GAYLENE GUNTER, (a/k/a “K. Gunner”), 42, currently incarcerated in Ft. Worth, Texas, pled guilty late yesterday to committing mail fraud in a scheme to embezzle money from her employer.  At the same hearing, Gunter was sentenced by United States District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange to serve an additional 12 months and 1 day in federal prison and ordered to pay $15,167.00 in restitution.

According to court records, Gunter worked as a production clerk for TXOK Energy Resources Company, a business involved in drilling and operation of oil and gas wells located in Woodward, Oklahoma.  Part of her duties included processing invoices for TXOK. In 2006, Gunter engaged in a scheme to defraud TXOK by fabricating eleven false invoices which were billed to TXOK from a fictitious company called Performance Services.  As part of the scheme, each of the false invoices bore either forged or fraudulently copied initials of TXOK employees authorizing payment of the invoices which were sent to the TXOK main office for payment.  Payment was then mailed to "K. Gunner" d/b/a Performance Services addressed to a Post Office box in Sharon, Oklahoma, controlled by Gunter who deposited the checks into her joint checking account at the Bank of Vici and used these funds from her joint account for her own personal benefit.

In 2004, Gunter was convicted in a Tennessee federal court for conspiracy to commit mail fraud for embezzling from her Tennessee employer.  She was sentenced at that time to serve three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $160,889.47. Based on her embezzlement from TXOK, Gunter’s probation was revoked in 2007 and she was ordered to serve 36 months in federal prison.  As a result of her guilty plea yesterday, Judge Miles-LaGrange ordered Gunter to serve an additional 12 months and one day in prison, pay restitution of $15,167.00, and directed not to engage in an occupation, business or profession that involves sales, billing, purchasing, or other fiduciary responsibilities.

These cases are the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross N. Nick Lillard.