Update on Steph Lasch: I just spoke to one of the clerks in the court in Anoka Co, MN. Steph was let out--perhaps temporarily--after she made a plea bargain yesterday. Her sentencing will take place on July 7. She could be sent back to jail, fined, or both. She was charged with 84 counts of fraud. I dont believe any of the complaints by massage therapists were actually considered. These were charges on behalf of local people who were clients of her spa whose credit cards she had made fraudulent charges on. This is what she plead to: 609.821, Subd. 2(1), which reads: Subd. 2.Violations; penalties. A person who does any of the following commits financial transaction card fraud: (1) without the consent of the cardholder, and knowing that the cardholder has not given consent, uses or attempts to use a card to obtain the property of another, or a public assistance benefit issued for the use of another; Also 609.821 Subd. 3(a)(1)(ii) which reads: Subd. 3.Sentence. (a) A person who commits financial transaction card fraud may be sentenced as follows: (ii) to imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $20,000, or both, if the value of the property the person obtained or attempted to obtain was more than $2,500, or the aggregate amount of the transactions under this subdivision was more than $2,500; and 609.101, heres the link, but basically states that a person must pay a fine of no less than 30% of the value of the maximum fine, and that 70% of it is to go to victim assistance. https://revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=609.101 Steph must have researched the law before getting herself into trouble. Although she was charged with 84 counts, the amount that she was charging to the clients cards, if memory serves, was $67, the price of a massage in her business. 84 counts of that is less than the $10,000 threshold it would take to make this go up another notch in seriousness, but it was more than the $2500 required for a felony charge. She had previously bilked the construction company owner out of $8000, so she apparently has the criminal mindset that if she doesnt do a $10,000 crime, shell get off light. My understanding is that the plea bargain actually got knocked down to just one count, which sounds terrible, but it apparently came down to the total amount of money involved. If you add all that she took from massage therapists, shed no doubt be well over that threshold, but the local district attorney could not do anything about all the interstate charges. I dont know how many people took the trouble to complain to the FBI. I know a handful of us did. I also just heard from the Lino Lakes Police Dept that they are going to post a press release about it later today. I told the clerk of court that I had been on the notification list to be notified of the trial and that I did not receive that, and she stated that they had more than 80 people on the list to notify and they just had not gotten them all notified yet. Apparently some of her clients did show up for the trial and she said they had been inundated with calls from people who were angry about her being let out of jail before her sentencing, but I guess thats the way the law bounces. Ill post the press release when its up.
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 15:03:40 +0000