By Paul Walsh

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Three-plus years in prison is the sentence for a woman who over many years stole $1.7 million from her employer in southern Minnesota and blew most of the money on gambling.

Diane M. Eiler, 48, of Bird Island, Minnesota, was sentenced last week in federal court in Minneapolis to 3 1/2 years in prison and ordered to make full restitution to AgQuest Financial Services, of Morgan, her employer for more than 15 years until her stealing was revealed.

“Eiler systematically abused the trust of her employer to steal more than $1.7 million,” said Assistant United States Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.

Eiler, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud, was the director of accounting at AgQuest, which offers loans and insurance to farmers and other agricultural producers.

From 2007 until 2015, she stole company checks and wrote them out to herself. She created false entries in AgQuest’s ledger to disguise the checks as payments to AgQuest customers.

In total, Eiler wrote more than 250 checks to herself and gambled away more than $1.2 million of the stolen $1.7 million at Jackpot Junction in nearby Morton.