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Girl Scouts Embezzler Gets 7 Years

The senior official stole $370,000.

A Girl Scouts con artist got his day of reckoning on Tuesday.

A man who embezzled almost $370,000 from the Los Angeles-area Girl Scouts was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 months in prison for mail fraud and money laundering. Channing Smack was sentenced in January for the crimes, and ordered to pay the $368,278 in restitution.

Smack, a senior property manager for the group, was in charge of 22 properties in the region, and approved maintenance payments to a fake organization registered in the name of his dead brother. The 23 checks that Smack sent to the firm, called ZB Land Maintenance & Engineering, went back to Smack. Growing suspicious, Girl Scout officials had private investigators dig into the connection and uncovered the scam.

In December, Smack was confronted by FBI agents, and asked, "Am I going away for life?" Then, just an hour afterwards, tried to withdraw $64,500 from one of the accounts. He was arrested the next day and pleaded guilty in late January.