A former Columbia Falls woman who admitted to defrauding Montana victims by creating and cashing fraudulent checks was sentenced today to two years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and she is ordered to pay $7,299 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Joanna Marie Snyder, 59, a former Columbia Falls resident who currently resides in Boston, pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen.
According to court documents, Sydner in October of 2019 engaged in a scheme to create counterfeit $20 Federal Reserve notes and obtained the identities and a bank account information of Montana victims to create and cash fraudulent checks.
An investigation found 19 fraudulently cashed checks drawn off a hospitality account associated with a Kalispell business. Several of the hospitality checks were made out to Snyder and had been deposited into accounts owned by Snyder at a local bank.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case.