A former employee of a southwest Idaho irrigation district will spend 41 months in federal prison and pay more than $1.7 million in restitution for wire fraud, money laundering and embezzlement.

U.S. District Judge Amanda Brailsford also ordered Catherine Skidmore, 56, of Meridian, to serve three years of supervised release following her prison term, according to an Oct. 13 press release from Josh Hurwit, U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho.

Black Canyon Irrigation District employed Skidmore as secretary-treasurer from about January 2014 to July 2022. From May 2019 to July 2022, she “knowingly devised a scheme and artifice to defraud” the district “by embezzling more than $1.7 million through the use of an elaborate series of transfers between the BCID’s various financial accounts,” according to the release.

Officials of the Notus-based irrigation district could not be reached for comment.

In her job, Skidmore handled fee collecting, bill payments, investment account management and maintenance of the irrigation district’s accounting software database and ledgers. She had access to and signatory authority over district bank accounts, including the ability to write and deposit checks and transfer funds to and from the accounts, according to the release.

She had access to and authority over financial accounts, including the district’s savings account at a bank and a Local Government Investment Pool account administered by the State Treasurer.

Skidmore in May 2019 used a falsified form with a forged signature of a member of the district’s board of directors to open a second LGIP account with the state treasurer, without the knowledge of or authorization by the district or the board, according to the release.

From June 2019 through July 2022, she authorized and directed transfers from the original, authorized Local Government Investment Pool account to the second, unauthorized LGIP account without disclosing the nature of the transfers to the district or the board. She then caused about $1,792,000 to be transferred from the unauthorized LGIP account to the Idaho Central Credit Union savings account through a series of 25 separate interstate wire transfers, all without the knowledge of the irrigation district.

Once Skidmore transferred the funds to the irrigation district’s savings account, she withdrew the funds, mostly in the form of cashier’s checks. She then used the funds for personal benefit.

Hurwit’s office listed as examples 18 dated checks Skidmore obtained for more than $10,000, ranging from $11,231 to $270,000.

Skidmore made false entries in Black Canyon’s internal accounting records that “represented certain funds were used to pay the BCID expenses, when, in fact, Skidmore used the funds for her personal use and benefit,” according to the release. She also created, and caused to be created, fictitious invoices “to make it appear that the funds she had stolen were used to pay for legitimate BCID business expenses.”

An FBI investigation led to the charges, Hurwit said.