Former BLM employee sentenced in Tucson federal court for embezzlement scheme

An embezzlement scheme by a former Bureau of Land Management employee drained the agency’s budget to the point that rangers could not buy ammunition or body armor. Pamela Spencer, 33, pleaded guilty to stealing $90,000 of government property through a series of fraudulent purchases she made using a government-issued credit card. She was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Tucson to six months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $83,169. As mortgage payments and credit card bills piled up, she “acted out of desperation,” Spencer told Judge James A. Soto at the sentencing hearing on Thursday...MORE