Former Iowa State University Employee Sentenced for Embezzlement

A woman accused of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from Iowa State University was sentenced on Monday, January 4, 2010 to two years of probation.

Pamela Ann Reinig was found guilty by a trial by judge based solely on the state’s evidence against her on Nov. 4. The charge she was convicted of, first-degree theft, is a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The sentence was suspended in Reinig’s case by District Court Judge William J. Pattinson, who followed the recommendation of prosecutor Denise Timmons for probation, restitution and a suspended fine.
Reinig was director of the Engineering Communications and Marketing Department at ISU from Jan. 1, 2003 to Dec. 31, 2007. Around December 2007, the ISU Department of Public Safety Police Division became aware of some issues around Reinig’s tenure at ISU. First, an employee who served under her, accused Reinig of falsifying a 2002 evaluation to conceal a promised raise.
Then, on Jan. 10, 2008, ISU police received a report from ISU’s Internal Audit division indicating some discrepancies in Reinig’s record keeping that indicated she may have personally received financial gain from work conducted by ECM employees for outside companies.
Reinig resigned in the face of the investigation, but no charges were filed until a Feb. 27, 2009 report from the Iowa Auditor’s Office, which found $92,495 in undeposited payments, improper disbursements and unsent billings for services, including $58,505 that was paid to Reinig that should have been deposited with ECM.
Reinig was working at her new job with Upper Iowa University as vice president of marketing when ISU announced it had filed charges in the case on Aug. 24, 2009. Reinig originally was charged with first-degree theft and ongoing criminal conduct, a class B felony.
Smith told Pattinson that Reinig resigned her position at Upper Iowa University in December and now works as an unpaid intern with her church.