ST. CLOUD -- An Albany woman faces three felony counts of theft-by swindle for allegedly stealing money from the Holdingford Chamber of Commerce.

A complaint filed in Stearns County shows 34-year-old Sarah Schmidt was hired at the end of 2013 to manage the chamber's gambling account. The organization's treasurer told investigators they had recently noticed a large sum of money missing from the account.

Records show Schmidt had stopped attending meetings and instead texted the account balances to the treasurer. Bank records from March of this year showed the account balance at $8,900, but court records show Schmidt's last reported balance was $42,000.

Members of the chamber told police they thought Schmidt was taking cash payments from raffle drawings and failing to deposit them. She is accused of taking a total of just under $35,000 between 2014 and 2016.

Court records show Schmidt told investigators she had misplaced a small amount of the funds to be deposited, but didn't know why there would be discrepancies in the other deposits. She then declined to talk any further.

Schmidt has a court hearing scheduled for July 31st.

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