Bigfork woman charged with felony theft

 A Bigfork woman has agreed to plead guilty to felony wire fraud after allegedly stealing over $35,000 from Mountain Lake Lodge in Woods Bay.

According to documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Missoula, Rhonda Candler Sandon-Dominick began working at Mountain Lake Lodge in December 2004, eventually becoming front-desk manager at the hotel. Beginning in February 2009 and continuing until September 2013, Dominick allegedly issued unauthorized credit card refunds to herself and her family members, which she processed through Mountain Lake Lodge, according to court documents. Using several credit card numbers, all of which belonged to her or her family, Dominick supposedly refunded money to the cards for charges that had not been incurred.

She is charged with a single count of felony wire fraud. Mountain Lake Lodge discovered the embezzlement when its credit card processor, Heartland Payment Systems, reported an excessive number of refunds being issued to two particular debit cards. Those cards belonged to Dominick’s daughters, court documents say. Mountain Lake Lodge’s insurance company hired an accounting firm to perform an audit on the refunds. The audit concluded that Dominick had issued unauthorized credit card refunds in the amount of $34,964,47. She also issued unauthorized cash refunds in the amount of $1,707.48, court documents claim. Mountain Lake Lodge incurred other expenses in auditing Dominick’s alleged fraud, including attorneys’ fees and the deductible on the insurance policy that covered the fraud. The total loss amounted to $41,477.94, court documents show.

On Nov. 18, 2013, Dominick reportedly admitted to sheriff’s deputy Ben Woods and Secret Service agent Tad Downs to processing fraudulent refunds to all the credit cards and debit cards. Dominick said in court documents that she was “just trying to do something nice for her children.”

Dominick entered into a plea agreement on the single count of felony wire fraud Sept. 10, 2014, with U.S. District Court in exchange for consideration of a plea of guilty. She is scheduled for a plea hearing and arraignment Oct. 2 in Missoula.