Anna Jolene Chesnut, 62, was indicted by a federal grand jury for wire fraud, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma Sheldon J. Sperling announced today.
According to the indictment, from August 2008 to March 2009, Chesnut devised a scheme to obtain money, funds, credits, assets, securities or other property from an estate account by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.
In March 2009, Chesnut was charged in Bryan County Court with two counts of embezzlement while she was employed as a legal assistant to Durant attorney Mark Morrison.
According to the district attorney’s office, Chesnut had been reported missing and it was then that Morrison discovered the embezzlement.
An affidavit states that Chesnut took more than $80,000 from an estate account she had been appointed to oversee, plus an additional $30,100 from the law firm’s trust account.
She turned herself in shortly after the charges were filed and has been free on bond.
A preliminary hearing on the local charges is set for March 24.
The federal charge is the result of an investigation by the FBI. If convicted, Chesnut faces a punishment of not more than 20 years in prison. Federal prison sentences are non-parolable.
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