SEATTLE — A former finance director for two separate nonprofits was sentenced to prison Tuesday by Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman, after embezzling about $550,000 each year between 2016 and 2022.
The former finance director was found guilty of embezzling over $3 million over the course of 11 years and is sentenced to about 3.5 years in prison, according to a news release from the United States Attorney's Office.
Susana Tantico, 63 of Renton, worked as a finance director at a nonprofit that provided healthcare to underserved populations and another nonprofit that focused on criminal justice. She defrauded the two nonprofits, then used the money to fund vacations and extravagant purchases, to gamble and to pay her home mortgage.
“Ms. Tantico chose to victimize non-profit organizations, whose work is critical to our community: one employer provided medical care to those who cannot afford it; the other works to assist youth in the criminal justice system,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Gorman. “But over 11 years, knowing she was putting critical services at risk, she stole millions to finance her mortgage, pay for her vacations, and finance her gambling losses.”
Tantico began working for the healthcare nonprofit in 1999, going on to become the finance director. Records only show that between December 2016 and 2020, Tantico stole nearly $2.3 million in total, the news release states.
She withdrew $1.6 million at casinos for gambling and also used the nonprofits credit and debit cards to pay for family trips, technology purchases and retail shopping.
In 2020, Tantico began working for another nonprofit and she stole close to $893,000 in total from the nonprofit, according to the news release.
Of those funds, $485,000 was used for gambling at casinos. When questioned by the nonprofit’s bank about the withdrawal at casinos, Tantico told the bank the nonprofit hosted youth programs at the casino and the withdrawals were for cash prizes.
In court on Sept. 5, Dominique Davis of Community Passageways, a Seattle-area nonprofit focused on assisting youth and young adults in the criminal legal process, spoke about the impact of Tantico’s embezzlements on the organization.
“This was rough, this betrayal of trust,” Davis said. “It almost ruined our whole organization. We barely survived this. We were made out to be villains.”
She also used $21,000 to pay her home mortgage and transferred money to her personal bank account. She later changed the bank records to hide the embezzlement, according to the document. Throughout her career, Tantico hid her payments as business expenses and altered bank records.
Tantico spoke in court on Sept. 5, stating, “I am truly sorry. They were my work family. It’s like I was two separate people … I always meant to fix it.”
After her release, Tantico will be on supervised release for three years and she is required to pay back $3.1 million.
