APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — A 59-year-old Apple Valley woman is facing felony charges after allegedly embezzling more than $120,000 from an Eden Prairie-based nonprofit that operates senior living facilities for low-income residents.
Gail Marie Lindstrom is charged in Hennepin County District Court with three felony counts: theft by swindle, check forgery, and possession or sale of stolen or counterfeit checks.
Prosecutors allege that while working as an accounts payable administrator at the Eden Prairie office of Volunteers of America (VOA), Lindstrom carried out a yearlong fraud scheme from June 2021 to May 2022.
According to the criminal complaint, Lindstrom used her access to financial systems to redirect uncashed checks to herself, often under aliases such as “Gail Shaw.” She also allegedly created fake invoices and issued fraudulent payments to accounts she controlled.
The fraud was uncovered in August 2024, after a family member of a deceased VOA resident reported a suspicious $1,001 check. Though the check appeared physically uncashed, records showed it had been voided and reissued to “Gail Shaw,” later traced back to Lindstrom.
Authorities say she altered only the payee information on dozens of checks, keeping the amount and vendor code unchanged to evade detection by internal controls. Because most checks were below $10,000, they did not require a second signature.
A search warrant at Huntington National Bank revealed Lindstrom maintained six accounts under various name combinations, including joint accounts with a relative.
Investigators ultimately identified over 30 fraudulent checks, totaling $120,234.09. Originally, many of those payments were intended for legitimate vendors, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, HealthPartners, McKesson Medical-Surgical, law firms, and estate accounts.
Lindstrom was fired in 2022 for unrelated performance issues. She also appears as a suspect in a 2019 Minneapolis police report tied to a separate embezzlement case, though she has no prior convictions.
Lindstrom made her first court appearance on June 3 and is scheduled to return on July 8. She has not yet entered a plea and remains presumed innocent.
If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine on the most serious charge.
