A former environmental director for the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Maine was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to serve one year of probation for stealing and embezzling more than $25,000 in tribal money.

Stephen E. Crawford, 68, formerly of Perry, Maine, but now residing in Beaufort, North Carolina, submitted fraudulent travel expenses and supporting documents to the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point between 2006 and 2012. He served as its environmental director from February 2003 to February 2012.

Crawford paid $26,373.72 in restitution in advance of his sentencing before Judge John A. Woodcock Jr.

“When confronted by the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point on February 6, 2012, and again by EPA investigators on December 6, 2013, the defendant admitted that he had personally been reimbursed for expenses for which the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point had already paid him, and admitted that he knew it was wrong,” Assistant U.S. Attorney F. Todd Lowell wrote in a prosecution document filed with the court.

Crawford pleaded guilty last Nov. 16 to the charge of embezzlement and theft from an Indian tribal organization.

 


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