Ex-County Worker To Return Embezzled $50,000 Achziger Accepts Plea Bargain, Telling Judge She ‘Falsified Invoices’

Former Bonner County employee Pat Achziger has agreed to pay the county back approximately $50,000 that she’s accused of embezzling.

Achziger agreed to the plea bargain Monday. She was charged with 21 counts of embezzling county funds, but Prosecutor Phil Robinson agreed to drop 20 of those charges if she agreed to pay restitution to the county.

Appearing in 1st District Court in her yellow jail smock and orange jail-issued slip-on sneakers, Achziger explained in a quiet voice how she embezzled the money.

“I falsified invoices,” she said in response to Judge James Michaud’s questions. “I approved them, sir.”

The invoices were for nonexistent products from a company that Achziger owned, Apex, Inc. As the administrative assistant in the road department, Achziger would sign claim forms for services and goods used by the department.

The largest invoice was for $4,500, and the average phony invoice was for $1,000, she said.

“There were many invoices where I did provide things to the county, then somehow it got away and I don’t know why,” she said.

Achziger was charged with embezzling $48,000 from Aug. 10, 1992, through Sept. 13, 1996, while employed in the county’s Road and Bridge Department. She wrote phony claims for tires, snowplow blades and other items used by the department.

She said other county employees knew that she owned Apex, Inc., but Bonner County Clerk Marie Scott said she was not aware that Achziger owned a company that did business with the county.

Achziger also told Michaud that there are “a number” of employees who do business with the county outside of their county jobs. Scott said she was aware of no such conflicts of interest, except for former Commissioner Dean Stevens who once ground a stump for the county and submitted an invoice for the job near the end of his term.

As for the plea bargain, Scott said she was pleased with it.

“It’s probably the most expedient use of time and resources and the county will get its restitution,” she said. “And we’ll get our pound of flesh in terms of punishment.”

While Achziger’s charges formally accuse her of stealing $48,000, Robinson said he would seek restitution for the full amount that was stolen, which is closer to $50,000.

The maximum penalties Achziger could face are 14 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Michaud set sentencing for Jan. 14.

Achziger has been in jail since she was arrested in Arizona in early September.

Her crimes were not discovered until about a year after she’d left the county. Shannon Syth, now county treasurer, discovered the embezzled funds while tracking down a county check that accidentally was sent to Apex, Inc., instead of a computer company by the same name in Coeur d’Alene.

Since then, the county has changed its procedures to prevent similar crimes. Now, claim forms require two signatures before they go to the county commissioners for approval.