Former tribe employee pleads guilty to stealing $25,000

PLEASANT POINT, Maine — A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to embezzling approximately $25,000 from the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point.

Stephen E. Crawford, 68, of Beaufort, North Carolina, served as the tribe’s environmental director between February 2003 and February 2012, according to records filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

“Between 2006 and 2012, [Crawford] fraudulently obtained and stole about $25,000 from the tribe by submitting fraudulent travel expense reports and supporting documentation,” said a news release issued Monday from the office of U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II.

Crawford claimed when he was fired by the tribe in 2012 that it was because he was not a Passamaquoddy. Tribal officials countered at the time that he was released in the midst of an “ongoing investigation.”

Crawford faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General investigated the case.