Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
United States Attorney Susan T. Lehr announced that Ashtin D. Schutjer, age 36, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was sentenced on December 20, 2024, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska for access device fraud. Chief United States District Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Schutjer to 14 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After her release from prison, Schutjer will be placed on a 3-year term of supervised release. Schutjer was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $151,693.74.00 to Victim 1 as a result of her crimes.
Schutjer began working as a caregiver for an elderly married couple, Victim 1 and Victim 2, in 2014. Defendant was paid via check daily for her services. One of Schutjer’s jobs was to run errands for the victims, and Schutjer had access to the victims’ First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) debit card and account information. The FNBO card was the only card used by the victims.
The co-branded Chase/Amazon credit card (an access device) was opened under a derivative form of Victim 2’s name at the beginning of 2018. Victim 1 was not listed on the account or as an authorized user of the card. Victim 2 passed away on August 3, 2018. Use of the Chase/Amazon card continued and accelerated after Victim 2’s death. Records show purchases on the Chase/Amazon card include airline tickets (purchased for the defendant and her family), a Microsoft Xbox, Amazon purchases, and restaurant and grocery purchases in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where the defendant resides. Payments on the Chase/Amazon credit card were drawn from the Victim 1’s FNBO checking account. Over a three-year period, 2018 through 2021, over $150,000 was charged to the Chase/Amazon credit card. None of the charges on the Chase/Amazon credit card were incurred by Victim 1.
Schutjer used the Chase/Amazon card to pay for purchases made on her Amazon customer accounts, listing Victim 2’s name as the party to be billed at her own residential address. The order history showed multiple orders placed using the Chase/Amazon card and shipped to the defendant’s home, the victims’ home, and other addresses. Many of the items purchased were children’s clothes and toys. Other items include an Apple laptop, shipped under Victim 1’s name to Schutjer’s home address; Apple AirPods, shipped to defendant’s mother in Florida; and an Apple iPad, shipped to the defendant at her home address.
Victim 1’s FNBO account was entirely depleted because of Schutjer’s crime. In sentencing Schutjer to imprisonment for 14 months, Chief Judge Rossiter told her, “You took away everything this woman (Victim 1) had.”
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.