As a financial specialist for Lutheran Social Service, Kathy Jo Feist had 31 vulnerable adults as clients. She was supposed to handle their finances and disburse money to them as they needed it.Instead, court documents filed Wednesday say she allegedly stole more than $103,000 from her clients. She spent it at casinos and on dining out, and for vacations to Tampa, Fla., the Black Hills, Ely, Minn., Iowa City and Wisconsin Dells. She also used some to make purchases at grocery, hardware and clothing stores and nail salons. And some went to pay her cable, cell phone, dental and prescription drug bills and other personal expenses.
Feist is scheduled to make her first court appearance Feb. 23.
Bob Bach, an attorney for Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, said LSS uncovered the theft internally and did a full audit, which was then submitted to St. Paul police.
"But LSS didn't stop there," Bach said Thursday. "It's gone forward and reimbursed all the clients who had any monies taken from their account illegally. Nobody should be out any money as far as we can tell from our audit. We take our mission very seriously as protectors of these vulnerable adults."
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Theft From Vulnerable Alleged
My respect to LSS. It is so unfortunate that other agencies often encourage & participate in theft of the vulnerable. NASGA will continue to expose this corruption.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree Anon. LSS stepped up to the plate and that's applaudable.
ReplyDeleteKathy Jo Feist should be put away for a long, long time.
Thank you, Lutheran Social Services, for doing the right thing!
ReplyDeleteThank you. It's awful what Kathy Jo Feist did and I hope she suffers the severest penalty.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I am encouraged with the action Luthern Social Service took and the fact that they just did it on their own.
The victims here were very lucky. Usually resitution doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know that an organization reimburses thefts by one of its employees.
ReplyDeleteAnd good for LSS for catching Feist.
Hope she does some good jail time to teach others a lesson.
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia....Thank goodness in this country we are innocent until proven guilty. Being charged and being convicted are not the same thing. I think you need to be careful with comments like that until you know for sure she's guilty.
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