Former Kingman city employee pleads guilty to theft of more than $1 million in city funds

KINGMAN, Ariz. – A Kingman woman who formerly worked for the city pleaded guilty Friday to stealing more than $1 million from the city’s coffers, following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Diane Maxine Richards, 60, pleaded guilty to four felony counts of theft. According to documents filed in the case, in September 2015 HSI began investigating Richards after financial institutions reported seeing unusual activity in her bank accounts.

HSI’s probe revealed Richards had used a city credit card to pay for personal expenses from July 2007 through January 2015. Those expenses included payments for her cellphone service, utilities and auto insurance. Richards submitted falsified invoices to account for the charges. She also used the city’s credit card to pay off cash advances taken out at various casinos. In all, Richards charged more than $120,000 in personal expenses to the city’s credit card. Richards also misappropriated $990,000 in funds from an Employee Benefits Trust account.

As part of her guilty plea, Richards agreed to pay more than $1.1 million in restitution to the City of Kingman and to forfeit her state retirement benefits.

The judge deferred acceptance of Richard’s plea until her sentencing, which is set for Oct. 4. She faces a maximum sentence of more than nine years in prison. Assistant Attorneys General Joseph Waters and Adam Schwartz prosecuted this case.