Former Clutier city clerk sent to federal prison for embezzling

A former Clutier city clerk who embezzled over $108,000 from the Tama County city between 2016 and 2018 was sentenced last week to two years in federal prison and must pay restitution.

Keri Ann Kopriva, 44, of Elberon, pleaded guilty last October in U.S. District Court to one count of wire fraud. According to plea agreement and sentencing documents, Kopriva stole money from the city by writing checks to herself and family members, using city credit cards for personal expenses and taking money that was meant for utility payments from residents.

She routinely issued herself fraudulent expense reimbursement checks, according to the plea agreement. Kopriva also issued herself 20 additional checks, totaling $13,749, which had no supporting documentation.

According to a State Auditor’s report and the plea, Kopriva also wrote checks on the city’s checking account made payable to herself but were recorded in the accounting system as checks paid to city vendors. She wrote eight of these totaling $3,151 to various vendors, but they were deposited in her personal checking accounts.

Kopriva would wrote checks on the city of Clutier’s checking account made payable to herself but recorded them in the accounting system as voided checks. She wrote nine of these totaling $4,462.

From September to December 2017, Kopriva wrote three checks made payable to Alliant Energy but two were for her personal Alliant bill and the third was for another person’s bill, according to the plea. Those totaled $1,570.

Kopriva made improper purchases from January to December 2018 on the city’s credit card issued to her and another issued to a city maintenance person, but the maintenance person never used the card. Kopriva made between $20,000 and $27,703 of unauthorized and improper purchases on the city’s credit card. She then used the city’s checking account to pay of the various credit card bills that included her unauthorized purchases.

According to the audit report, she also was responsible for collecting utility payments from residents. Based on a review of records during her employment in comparison with the utility billing records in the year following her termination, she failed to deposit between $15,000 to $43,450 in utility payments in the city’s bank account.

In December 2018, Kopriva stopped working as the city clerk when she went on medical leave for drug treatment, according to the plea. She told city officials she had an addiction problem and told them as part of her recovery she needed to admit what she had done. Kopriva admitted to the improper uses of the city’s credit card, checking account and other financial unauthorized spending.

Kopriva previously was convicted in Tama County District Court for two charges of first-degree theft in 2022 for her embezzlement from the city. She was sentenced to 10 years, but the sentence was suspended and she was given five years’ probation.

U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Kopriva last week to two years in prison and ordered her to pay $108,169 in restitution to Clutier. She must also serve three years of supervised release following her prison term.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Morfitt and investigated by the FBI.

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