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Area woman arraigned in Xpressbet theft

3 min read
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A Cokeburg woman was arraigned Tuesday on charges including theft and tampering with records for allegedly setting up bogus Xpressbet accounts at The Meadows Racetrack and crediting those accounts with nonexistent money that was withdrawn by four other women.

Kari Lynn Watson, 32, of 121 Lincoln St., is also charged by North Strabane Township police with conspiracy, theft by deception, unlawful use of a computer, computer tresspass to transfer funds and false reports.

“She was the mastermind behind the plan,” said police Investigator Nathan Terling.

The chief financial officer at Xpressbet told Terling that Watson, an Xpressbet employee, reportedly altered four accounts, including one existing account and three newly opened fraudulent accounts. She then allegedly credited the accounts with nonexistent cash.

Jawanna Lynn Raines, 39, Ashley Marie Webb, 26, and Monica Lee Brookins, 28, all of Pittsburgh, and Tammy Lynn Smith, 42, of Carnegie, are accused of withdrawing a total of $28,540 from the four accounts at The Meadows Race Book payout. All four were charged last week with theft, theft by deception, receiving stolen property and conspiracy. Raines is free on $28,540 bond. Webb remains in Washington County jail on $10,000 as well as an outstanding warrant. Brookins is free on $10,000 unsecured bond. Smith is wanted on a warrant.

The financial officer told Terling that Watson’s job was to place bets made over the telephone by customers who had qualified accounts with Xpressbet. He told the investigator when an account is opened, it goes through a credit and personal information check, which must be passed before the account is activated. The Xpressbet officer told Terling that Watson reportedly has the authority to override the check as well as authority to credit accounts with funds. She also allegedly had the authority to change or alter personal demographics of customers’ accounts, according to court documents.

Watson allegedly opened the accounts July 10, logging into the customer records management system using her own name. She reopened all of the accounts. Watson allegedly logged back out and then logged back on using the name of a fellow Xpressbet employee to put money in the four accounts, court records indicate.

Xpressbet has alerts in place to monitor for fraud. The payouts in this case were made on accounts that had no betting activity, court records state.

Terling said more arrests are pending. Watson was arraigned before District Judge Jay Weller and released from jail after posting $100,000 bond. She is awaiting a preliminary hearing Aug. 18. Three of her co-conspirators have hearings set for Aug. 3, also before Weller.

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