Richland club’s bookkeeper stole over $110K and left the group in trouble with the IRS

A Richland woman will spend a year in prison after siphoning more than $110,000 from a Richland club.

Katrine Smith, 50, pleaded guilty recently in Benton County Superior Court to first-degree theft.

She also admitted that her crime involved a high-degree of sophistication and resulted in a greater loss than is typical for theft.

While she normally would have faced a three-month maximum sentence for the crime, the aggravating circumstance meant she could be sentenced to a year in prison.

Smith also will have to repay $72,000 to the club. She already repaid $38,000 before her arrest.

It was a good outcome for the members of the Richland Riders Club who are only now recovering from the damage done by Smith, Deputy Prosecutor Brittnie Roehm told the Herald.

For years, Smith didn’t file the organization’s taxes and pocketed money intended to pay them. This left the group in trouble with the federal government, Roehm said.

The crime left divisions in the small organization as some couldn’t believe Smith was capable of years of deception.

“The board members really do believe that justice was done,” Roehm said. “They felt that this case came to an appropriate conclusion and they are hoping to rebuild.”

While Smith admitted to the theft, she did not agree that she stole the entire $117,000 that she was accused of taking, her attorney Christine Bennett told the Herald.

“Although she believes the amount taken is less than what was included in the plea agreement, she is deeply sorry for her actions over the years and has been working on herself so that she has the strength to not make a mistake like this again,” Bennett said.

Smith was the treasurer for the Richland Riders Club from 2011 to 2018 when she managed the finances. The position came with a $960 annual salary, according to court records.

The members-only club was formed in 1949 and owns and operates a 9-acre equestrian boarding and riding facility at 2533 Van Giesen St., west of Highway 240.

Years of missing money

The sentencing put an end to a case that started on Dec. 1, 2018, when Smith walked into the Richland police station to turn herself for embezzling $38,000 from the club.

The day before she had told the club president about the cash deposit, saying that she borrowed the money from her mother to repay the club.

The president gave her a day to turn herself into police, according to court records.

Smith told officers that she started taking money in 2013 as a way to pay personal bills.

When she wrote checks, Smith was supposed to get co-signed by the board’s president. An audit found 293 checks only signed by her that totaled $117,000.

The checks ranged from ones she wrote to herself, including more than $7,750 in taxes she didn’t pay. She also wrote checks to herself for the same items that she also paid vendors for.

Every check she wrote to herself was deposited into her personal bank account.

She blamed a computer error and club turnover in the secretary position for most of the losses.