BOISE, Idaho — A former St. Alphonsus employee was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for wire fraud. Lois Soito, 60, of Horseshoe Bend was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release following her release from prison and to pay $1,483,963.82 in restitution. Soito pleaded guilty on November 13, 2019.
According to court records, Soito was employed by St. Alphonsus Health System (SAHS) in Boise for 22 years. In her job, Soito had access to money raised at the Festival of Trees. In January 2005, Soito devised a scheme to defraud SAHS to acquire money and property. Soito kept checks intended for SAHS instead of depositing them in the appropriate account.
She then fraudulently deposited some of the checks into a bank account used to reimburse SAHS vendors. From that account, Soito wrote checks payable to herself and deposited them into a credit union account she controlled. Soito also used some of the checks to cover her theft of funds from the Festival of Trees from 2014 through 2018.
Soito used similar methods with other accounts connected to SAHS between approximately 2014 to 2019 to embezzle additional funds. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Boise Police Department.
