PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a Portland woman to nearly three years in federal prison for stealing more than $1 million from an Oregon foster agency that she had led.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Mary Ayala was sentenced Friday. She ran the private foster care agency Give Us This Day from 2008 through 2015.
She was found guilty of theft, money laundering and filing false personal income tax returns after a February trial.
The agency primarily received funding from Oregon and the federal government to hire and screen foster parents, pay them and place foster children in residential or group homes.
Prosecutors say Ayala wrote checks, used the foster care agency's debit card and withdrew cash, using the organization's bank accounts as her own.
At trial, Ayala's lawyer Whitney Boise denied the allegations and maintained that the government didn't have the evidence to support its allegations.
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