Plea deal: Treasurer spent stolen Eagle River youth hockey funds on chicken coop, trip to Disneyland

A volunteer treasurer who stole more than $100,000 from a youth hockey organization spent some of the money on a chicken coop, travel to Disneyland, and BMW car payments.

That's according to a plea agreement between federal prosecutors and Jennifer Suchan, filed Tuesday in the District Court of Alaska. The agreement outlines how Suchan went about stealing the Mustang Hockey Association's money and how she spent it.

Suchan agreed to plead guilty to three counts of wire fraud and to pay $170,353 in restitution to the hockey association, according to the deal.

Suchan volunteered as treasurer for Eagle River's Mustang Hockey Association from 2014 to 2017. In 2015, Suchan began forging the signature of one of the organization's board members, the plea deal says.

Suchan wrote checks payable to herself and wrote false entries on the memo line to make it look like it was a legitimate expense.

Of the $157,079 in forged checks that Suchan wrote from the Hockey Association's Wells Fargo account, $8,000 was used for legitimate expenses, the plea deal says.

Suchan also deposited another $7,353 from the association's account acting as her own authorized signer, and she withdrew an additional $14,000 in cash from the same account. Suchan didn't track how she spent that $21,353, the plea deal says. She agreed to include that money in restitution payments.

With the stolen money, Suchan covered her personal expenses, including mortgage payments and BMW car payments. She bought a $1,500 chicken coop, and took her family to Alyeska and Disneyland, the plea deal says, "among other things."

Suchan's attorney declined to comment.

Maximum penalties for wire fraud are up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, the plea deal says.