Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.
A former staffer for Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, pleaded guilty Tuesday to siphoning over $20,000 from her former boss's bank account to pay her own credit card bills. Courtney Hruska, 40, admitted to committing felony wire fraud at a court hearing in Alexandria, Virginia.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but Hruska is likely to receive far less time when she is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in June. The victim is not identified in court filings, but records show Hruska worked for Kaptur. A spokesperson for the congresswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to court filings, Hruska worked for the victim's Washington, D.C. office between 2015 and 2022, and served as her office scheduler and manager before becoming her administrative director. The congresswoman 'provided and entrusted the defendant with Victim’s personal credit card and bank account information' and authorized her to 'make specific purchases' as part of her official duties and responsibilities, court papers say. Hruska left the congresswoman's office in early 2022, and 'with the assistance of Victim, began a new job with the United States Department of Agriculture,' the filing say. More than a year later, according to a 'statement of facts' that Hruska admitted to, she began wiring money from the congresswoman's bank account to pay down her own credit card bills. She made 10 such transfers between August of 2023 and July of 2024, totaling almost $23,000, according to the statement. Hruska told prosecutors she didn't think she'd be found out because she knew the victim was not 'tech savvy' and 'did not use electronic banking in any form' so she would not get real-time alerts about the payments, the statement of facts said. The victim discovered the transfers in late 2024, when a personal check she wrote was returned for insufficient funds, the court filing said. Hruska initially tried to claim she wasn't the person responsible, the statement of facts said. 'Throughout the investigation into the defendant’s conduct, the defendant repeatedly told investigators — both state and federal — as well as Victim and Victim’s representatives, that 'hackers from the dark web' must have been responsible for causing the wires to be sent from Victim’s bank account to pay the defendant’s personal credit card bills,' the filing said. 'In truth, these repeated claims were false, and the defendant knew they were false.' An attorney for Hruska did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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