COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
The former accounting director for the South Carolina Hospitality Association will spend 30 months in prison after admitting to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the group.
Judge Joe Anderson handed Rachel Duncan's sentence down in federal court Tuesday afternoon. He ordered her to pay $367,508.84 in restitution to the Hospitality Association and $85,333 to the Internal Revenue Service.
Her attorney said Duncan is an addict and that she should have gotten help a long time ago.
Duncan pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud and tax evasion charges under an agreement with federal prosecutors. Both are felonies. Duncan took more than $480,000 from the association and used the money for online gambling.
She apologized in court and told the judge she felt in the back of her mind that she would "hit the big one" and be able to pay all of the money back.
The missing money came to light after the association's executive director Tom Sponseller went missing in February. He was later found dead in a locked closet in a parking garage near the association's offices.
Duncan worked closely Sponseller. He mentioned Duncan in his suicide note saying he was despondent over her financial crime because it happened on his watch.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Sponseller received any of the money that was missing from association accounts.
Duncan faced up to 23 years in prison.
Duncan will self-report for incarceration when notified to do so by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Typically, that takes approximately two months.
She will likely spend the bulk of her sentence at a federal women's prison in West Virginia.
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Rachel Duncan walks into federal court Tuesday. (Source: Jack Kuenzie)
