Embezzled $170,000 ordered repaid

The former executive director of the International Association of Gaming Attorneys, who is scheduled to be sentenced in less than a month on federal fraud charges, has been ordered to repay the association nearly $170,000.

Judy Klein had been sued by the association and lost her case when she failed to respond to the lawsuit.

District Judge Michael Cherry on Wednesday set the amount that Klein must reimburse her former employer, although with a criminal case hanging over her head, the judgment may be only a minor issue.

Sentencing on the federal felony for Klein is set for Feb. 4.

The International Association of Gaming Attorneys lawsuit, filed in October 1998, alleges Klein stole, embezzled or misappropriated the funds over the eight years she worked as its executive director.

The lawsuit charges that Klein, also known as Judy Klein-Bloomfield, who was in charge of association finances gathered from membership dues, conference fees and corporate contributions, diverted them for her own use between 1991 and 1998.

She is alleged to have misused the association's American Express account, paid herself additional salary and transferred money into her own checking account without authorization.

The criminal case involves the redirection in 1997 of $10,000 in IAGA funds to Klein's bank account.

Klein was in the news two years ago when the state Ethics Commission investigated a County Commission vote awarding a McCarran International Airport coffee concession to a company in which she held ownership.

Then-Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates was found in violation of ethics laws for voting in favor of the concession without disclosing her associations with Klein. The Ethics Commission ruling, however, was later overturned by a Washoe County judge.

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