Idaho woman stole over $1M from employer and used the funds to gamble
Published at | Updated at
Garrett Cabeza, The Spokesman-Review
SPOKANE, Wash. (The Spokesman-Review) — A Coeur d’Alene woman who used her position at a Spokane Valley manufacturer to steal more than $1 million from her employer, then gambled away most of the money at a north Idaho casino, will spend 33 months in federal prison and must repay the money.
Tahnya H. Shafer, a 48-year-old former human resources manager at Spokane Industries, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to wire fraud, according to court documents and a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office in Idaho.
Shafer’s theft was among the setbacks that bankrupted Spokane Industries.
Thomas Buford, a Seattle bankruptcy attorney for Spokane Industries, said the company is likely to emerge from federal bankruptcy in the next month or two as most of the company’s major creditors settle on a plan of reorganization.
Shafer was indicted in August 2025 on 26 counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering, according to court documents. As part of a plea agreement, she admitted to one count of wire fraud while the remaining 27 felony counts were dismissed.
RELATED | Latter-day Saint leader slams explosion in sports betting, prediction markets
Wire fraud, the most serious charge she faced, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
As human resources manager for Spokane Industries, Shafer oversaw employee benefits, payroll and accounts payable from 2022 to 2025.
Using the payroll system, Shafer inflated her paycheck so she was paid more than she was entitled to earn as a salaried employee, according to court records. She also created fictional employees and collected the additional paychecks.
She fraudulently obtained at least $774,386 from those two schemes.
She engaged in a third scheme to defraud Spokane Industries by creating payments to “seemingly legitimate vendors,” but would reroute the payments to her bank accounts rather than those vendors, according to court documents. She obtained at least $265,740 through that scheme.
Once she received the funds in her accounts, she would spend a majority of the money at Coeur d’Alene Casino, court records state. She also transferred more than $120,000 to pay down a home equity line of credit.
In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Amanda Brailsford ordered Shafter to pay more than $1 million in restitution to Spokane Industries. Brailsford recommended to the Federal Bureau of Prisons that Shafer receive mental health treatment with an emphasis on treatment for gambling addiction.
Shafer will serve three years of supervised release after prison.
Meanwhile, Spokane Industries has been trying to get back on its feet after filing in January for Chapter 11 bankruptcy that allows it to restructure its finances while it continues operations.
Spokane Industries, which originally was founded in 1952 and primarily operates a foundry at 3808 North Sullivan Road, is one of the few Spokane-area businesses that takes raw materials and molds them into useful parts for other industries.
Patrick and Lisa Turner purchased the business in 2022.
“It was our intent to expand the (Spokane Industries) operations to service the mining industry, particularly after recognizing the increase of global copper demand,” Patrick Turner wrote in U.S. Bankruptcy Court records earlier this year.
But since buying the company, the Turners said they learned that company equipment was inadequate and the business faced a backlog of orders from customers who ordered parts for prices that did not cover the escalating costs of materials, according to court records. In August 2025, a structural beam in Spokane Industries’ primary operating facility collapsed, shutting down production for five weeks and resulting in a $1.48 million loss.
The significant setbacks, including Shafer’s wire fraud, led to the company’s bankruptcy filing.