By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily
(this story originally appeared on Cowboy State Daily)
A Gillette woman who defrauded another woman of more than $100,000 pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court this month to charges of wire fraud and making false claims to the Internal Revenue Service.
Alexa Kinney faces up to 45 years in prison, three years of supervised release and up to $1 million in fines for her convictions. She will be sentenced on March 24.
As part of her plea agreement, Kinney will also pay restitution, which will be determined by the court.
According to court documents, a woman identified only as M.F. filed a report with the Cheyenne Police Department in February 2020 alleging that Kinney defrauded her out of $165,000. According to M.F., Kinney was supposed to invest the money, but instead kept it for herself.
An investigation revealed that in 2019, Kinney was unemployed and lived at various hotels across Wyoming, often using fraudulent means to avoid paying her hotel bills.
In the summer of 2019, Kinney met M.F. while staying at the Fairfield Inn in Cheyenne, where the victim was an employee. The two became friends and Kinney learned that the victim had recently received a large inheritance.
Kinney persuaded M.F. to let her invest some of the money. On Aug. 9, 2019, M.F. gave Kinney a cashier’s check for $165,000. Kinney told M.F. that the investment would return $280,000 by Oct. 11, 2019.
The investigation revealed Kinney never invested the money, but instead...
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