OKLAHOMA CITY – A woman who bilked the Enid YWCA and a nonprofit school out of more than $400,000 was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for forgery and willfully filing a false federal income tax return.
A grand jury in federal district court here returned a 17-count superseding indictment in May 2023 against Deborah Wilczek, 46, charging her with devising and carrying out a scheme to defraud the YWCA in Enid and the Cimarron Montessori Children’s House.
Wilczek served in leadership positions for the YWCA for six and a half years: as finance director from November 2012 through April 2016, and as executive director for the next three years, through April 2019. The YMCA provided various services to female victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, investigators reported.
She also served on Cimarron’s school board in various capacities from August 2016 to April 2021.
Evidence presented in the case showed that Wilczek routinely accessed both the YWCA and the school’s business bank accounts, wrote herself checks, and made several unauthorized bank transfers to pay for her personal expenses, including her personal credit card. She concealed her theft by misclassifying these expenses in each nonprofits’ bookkeeping system.
In total, Wilczek embezzled $414,951 from the two nonprofits: $139,308 from the YWCA and $275,643 from Cimarron Montessori. She also forged Cimarron board members’ signatures on checks written to herself and her company, D.W. Consulting.
Wilczek also was accused of filing false federal income tax returns for the years 2016 through 2020, where she listed her total income substantially below the income actually received as a result of her fraudulent activities.
The grand jury indicted her on two counts of wire fraud, six counts of bank fraud, two counts of uttering forged securities, two counts of identity theft, and five counts of filing falsified federal income tax returns.
In accordance with a plea agreement, Wilczek pleaded guilty last November to one count of forgery and one count of filing an income tax return for the 2020 tax year that “materially understated her income.”
On her Form 1040s, Wilczek claimed that her income plunged from $128,425 in 2016 to $88,951 in 2019 to $22,822 in 2021, court records reflect.
Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy DeGiusti sentenced Wilczek on Sept. 11 to serve 30 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He also ordered Wilczek to pay $439,749 in restitution: $139,308 to the Enid YWCA, $221,622 to Cimarron Montessori Children’s House, and $78,819 going to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
In announcing his sentence, DeGiusti noted the detrimental effect that Wilczek’s conduct has had on the Enid community and the organizations themselves.
The case was investigated by the FBI Stillwater Resident Agency, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the Enid Police Department, U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester said.