Katie M. Tristan, 41, of Cedar Lake, was sentenced on May 28 to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Adam L. Mildred.
Tristan received her sentence from United States District Court Judge Gretchen S. Lund and will also serve two years of supervised release. She was ordered to pay $125,157.67 in restitution to the victims of the offense; this amount was paid in full at sentencing, with $123,192.22 being returned to the Hanover Community School District.
Court documents show that between October 2020 and June 2023, Tristan used her leadership roles in parent-teacher organizations at two Cedar Lake elementary schools to embezzle over $107,000 intended for extracurricular programming. For more than two years, she used PTO debit cards for personal expenses such as car rentals, travel and entertainment costs, utility payments, and retail shopping. After depleting PTO funds, she carried out fraudulent check transactions to falsely inflate account balances and prolong the scheme.
When school administrators and local police began investigating missing PTO funds, Tristan obstructed those investigations by forging bank documents and using fake email accounts to impersonate other PTO volunteers. In September 2023, she used a fake email account pretending to be a Cedar Lake Police detective handling the case so she could manipulate communications with a key witness.
“By stealing from her parent-teacher organization (PTO), Katie Tristan stole from the children that she had supposedly volunteered to help,” said U.S. Attorney Mildred. “Money meant to support their education and personal growth was diverted to fund her personal wants and expenses to the tune of $107,000. She compounded her crime through blatant fraud and obstruction designed to hide the fact that she was a thief… While Tristan failed to honor her duties as a PTO volunteer, her example can at least serve to teach other would-be fraudsters a valuable lesson—if you steal from Hoosier students, you will be held accountable.”
“Tristan sought out and obtained a position of trust in the Cedar Lake elementary schools and then violated the trust the community placed in her,” said Timothy J. O’Malley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Office.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Cedar Lake Police Department investigated this case; Assistant United States Attorney Zachary D. Heater prosecuted it.
