Minnesota & Pennsylvania Women Sentenced for Embezzling Millions to Fund Gambling Habits

Two women in Minnesota and Pennsylvania have been sentenced to prison for stealing massive sums from their former workplaces to fuel their gambling addictions, highlighting a recurring pattern of financial crimes driven by individuals with gambling problems.

Minnesota Woman Stole $2.7 Million

Destiny McKayla Combs, 37, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for embezzling nearly $2.72 million from a surrogacy agency and an affiliated law firm in Rochester, Minnesota.

Combs served as the accounting manager for both companies. She had sole responsibility for managing their finances, including taxes and financial statements. According to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), in 2022, the owner agreed to sell the surrogacy agency to Combs upon his retirement in 2023. However, as the sale date approached, Combs abruptly quit and moved to Florida.

An investigation revealed that from February 2019 through June 2023, she used company funds to pay off personal credit card debt she had incurred through gambling. Combs then falsified accounting records to disguise the theft as legitimate business expenses.

Over a 52-month period, Combs made approximately 292 payments from the company’s accounts to her personal American Express credit card. The payments totaled $2,723,025.

Additionally, while the case was pending, and she was under the supervision of pretrial services, she lied to her probation officer. She made numerous unauthorized trips, including to Las Vegas, New York City, Miami, Tucson, and Seattle.

“Combs treated her workplace like her own personal slot machine,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson in the DOJ release.

“Combs’s crime is part of a disturbing wave of fraud sweeping across Minnesota. From private companies to public programs, fraud has seeped into every corner of our state. We will continue to attack this fraud plague with everything we’ve got at the federal level.”

Along with the prison sentence, Combs will serve three years of supervised release and must pay restitution.

Pennsylvania Township Official Took $532K

In a similar case, Pamela Hackenburg, 64, the former secretary and treasurer of Gregg Township in Centre County, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to two to four years in state prison for embezzling over $532,000 in public funds to support her gambling habit.

According to Centre Daily Times, Hackenburg used the township’s credit cards 3,664 times for personal gain between 2019 and 2024. Investigators say she spent $322,185 gambling on DraftKings. She also sent herself about $150,000 through the mobile payment service Venmo.

Hackenburg spent over $33,000 on personal expenses. They include utilities, gas, meals, and payments in Florida, as well as visits to nail salons.

She pleaded guilty in July to felony counts of theft, identity theft, and access device fraud. Hackenburg offered a tearful apology to the township before learning her sentence. She said the past six years had been a blur and that she was sorry for “all the hardships and problems I have caused you all.”

In addition to prison time, Hackenburg was also ordered to pay approximately $615,000 in restitution. That includes the stolen money, payroll tax penalties, legal fees, and other related expenses.

Related Context: A Pattern of Gambling-Fueled Embezzlement

The two women’s cases echo several other recent incidents where employees in positions of financial trust stole large sums to feed their gambling habits.

In Washington, Matthew Randall Ping, a former state employee, embezzled $878,115 from the Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings. He received an 18-month sentence.

Assistant United States Attorney Dane Westermeyer requested a 33-month sentence. He said that Ping used a majority of the money to gamble, including making six trips to Las Vegas.

In Texas, Jason Matthew Babb, a former oil-field equipment company controller, allegedly stole $683,000 from his employer to pay off gambling debts. He reportedly scheduled payments of up to $20,000 at a time every couple of days, sometimes every few weeks. Babb would conceal the theft by labeling it as an expense for purchasing equipment.

In New York, federal prosecutors charged a former JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs executive with misappropriating $4.3 million from a crypto-casino startup for personal crypto trades and gambling.

Richard Kim allegedly transferred roughly $3.8 million into personal cryptocurrency accounts, including Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and Backpack. He then transferred approximately $1 million into a personal account held at Shuffle.com, a cryptocurrency casino.

These cases underline how gambling addiction can drive financial crimes, particularly when individuals have unfettered access to company or public funds.