A Clark County Sheriff’s incident report obtained by the Vancouver Business Journal states that Erika Laws, former executive director of the nonprofit Impactful People NW, “used funds intended for the organization for personal use.”
The Impactful People NW organization was dissolved in April of this year after Laws came under investigation.
“Investigation has determined that Laws stole money by writing herself checks for cash, using a debit card for the charity account to withdraw cash to support gambling at several casinos, and the purchase of food and drinks for personal entertainment. This was done without the Board of Directors’ knowledge or permission,” according to the incident report synopsis.
The investigation and incident report were completed by Detective Jon Shields, who concluded in the report that, “there is probable cause to arrest Erika Laws for multiple counts of Financial Fraud and Theft.”
At the time that the incident report was released to the Vancouver Business Journal on Oct. 22, the case had been closed and referred to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for charging. Shields wrote in his report that he had contacted Jack Green with Green & Ritchie, PLLC in Vancouver, who is representing Laws. He said he told Green that he would tell him when he finished the investigation and would offer Laws the opportunity for an interview prior to sending the case to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Shields stated that he allowed Laws’ attorney a week to respond to the request for an interview and did not receive a response.
The charges in the report sent to the PA’s Office included 86 counts of Theft II, three counts of Theft III and four counts of Financial Fraud. The report concluded that Laws “stole a total of $29,415.96 from the nonprofit” from January of 2017 to April of 2019.
According to the incident report, Shields first began investigating Laws when it was reported to him that she was “withdrawing charity funds using an ATM at the ilani Casino in Ridgefield.” Shields said he first started with looking into Impactful People NW, which was initially founded by Laws as Impactful Women NW. While conducting research into the Impactful People NW organization, Shields stated that he observed that Kelli Loo, a CPA, was listed as their treasurer. He met with her and two other board members, Barbi Haven and Teresa Curtis, regarding the allegations.
“I told them I had learned of the suspected theft from a third party and that’s why I had contacted Loo,” Shields wrote in the report. “They explained to me that Loo had just recently obtained access to the Impactful financial records. She said it was odd because she had been asking for access for several months; this was first clue that there was something wrong. When she did get access she discovered that Laws had just closed the prior accounts and transferred everything to a new account where she (Laws) was the only signature; this too is a red flag for fraud and theft.”
When contacted by the VBJ, Loo declined to comment on the investigation and the report.
Shields wrote in his report that the board members he met with confirmed that Laws had “clearly accessed the nonprofit account using her ATM to withdraw money at the ilani Casino.” He said that they told him that when the Board of Directors confronted Laws regarding this, she “defended herself saying she had paid everything back, and that day she gave them a $12,000 cashier’s check.”
According to Shields’ report, he began investigating numerous bank accounts opened by Laws at different financial institutions, including Columbia Bank, iQ Credit Union and Advantis Credit Union, HAPO Community Credit Union and others. He eventually took the information from each of the bank accounts and combined them into a single spreadsheet with all of the transactions. By grouping specific transactions by type, he found several things, including:
- Between Jan. 29, 2018, and Dec. 26, 2018, Laws used an ATM debit card belonging to the Columbia Bank account of Impactful Women to complete 51 transactions at ilani Casino, Lucky Eagle Casino, Last Frontier Casino and Spirit Mountain Casino for personal entertainment. There was a total loss to the charity of $12,184 in withdrawals and $127.50 in debit card fees.
- Between Jan. 10, 2018, and Nov. 23, 2018, Laws used an ATM debit card belonging to the Columbia Bank account of Impactful Women spending $2,079.25 on personal expenses for coffee and food.
- Between Jan. 14, 2019, and April 15, 2019, Laws used an ATM debit card belonging to the Columbia Bank account of Impactful Women to complete 20 transactions at ilani Casino and the Lucky Eagle Casino for personal entertainment. Total loss to the charity was $5,012.40 in withdrawals and $35 in debit card fees.
There were several other transactions in addition to those listed above that Shields made note of in his report as well. He also wrote in the report that he was told by members of the Board of Directors that Laws had claimed to pay all of the money back.
“When I looked at the deposits into the Columbia Bank Impactful Women’s account, Erika Laws did make seven deposits with check or cashier’s checks from four different personal or business accounts,” Shields wrote. “However, when compared with the deposits into those four accounts that are specifically intended for the charity, there is virtually no difference. In other words, the money that she deposited from her accounts should have been deposited in the charity’s account to begin with.”
When contacted by the VBJ on Oct. 30, Laws was out of town in Las Vegas and said she had not yet seen the report, so she could not offer a comment. She said she has not heard anything further about the investigation since first learning that there was an anonymous tip that she was “mismanaging funds” back in April.
The VBJ also reached out to several board members for comment on this and had not yet received any responses at press time. We will print any comments those board members do provide when we receive them.
