A Springdale woman, Shelly Jo Ketcher, was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison on August 15, 2024. The sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. On November 6, 2024, she was ordered to pay more than $3.4 million in restitution for charges of money laundering and filing a false income tax return. The sentencing hearing took place in the United States District Court in Fayetteville under Judge Timothy L. Brooks.
Court documents revealed that Ketcher, aged 58, waived indictment by a grand jury and pleaded guilty to the charges against her. She had been employed as a bookkeeper and accountant at a company in Northwest Arkansas for approximately five years. During this period, she embezzled over $2.5 million through unauthorized payments to herself and others who were not company employees, as well as unauthorized payments to credit card companies. Additionally, she reported false wages and salaries on her personal federal tax returns.
Ketcher's criminal history includes a previous conviction for wire fraud in the Northern District of Oklahoma in 2006 and two state convictions for embezzlement in Oklahoma.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and the Fayetteville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carly Marshall prosecuted the case.