A federal judge sentenced two Fort Smith women to different prison terms this morning in the Western District of US Federal Court in Fort Smith for a Fort Chaffee check fraud case involving the theft of $53,000 between 2017 and 2019.
According to information revealed in court Thursday, Amanda Komp embezzled the money in a "blatant and systematic" manner over the course of two years while Tammy McCullough participated in the fraud by depositing checks in a business account. The two women were found guilty in a jury trial in early June of this year on five separate felony counts.
The women were convicted of three counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government money, and one count of aggravated ID theft. The ID theft charge stemmed from the forgery of names of military officials Komp used to facilitate the theft.
Komp--a discharged National Guard veteran with two tours of duty under her belt-- and McCullough are daughter and mother. Both were found guilty on all counts at their June jury trial. They were tried together but sentence separately on Thursday.
Komp received two years on four of the counts and an additional two years on the ID theft count for a total time of four years in prison with seven years of supervised probation upon release, McCullough was given one-year punishment for four counts and one year for the ID theft for a total of two years with an additional three years of supervised probation.
Both women will be responsible for the $53,000 I'm restitution to the federal government and were informed of their right to appeal their cases. Both were given 45-days to self-report to their designated facilities within 45-days with McCullough, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, receiving sentencing to a federal medical detention facility.
Judge P.K. Holmes went over the sentencing guidelines in open court and explained that prison time for the ID theft was mandatory under federal guidelines.
