Former staffer for Rep. Marcy Kaptur used lawmaker’s account to pay own bills

A former congressional staffer for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after prosecutors said she used the lawmaker’s personal financial information to pay her own credit card bills.

Courtney Melissa Hruska, 40, of Alexandria, Virginia, entered the guilty plea on Tuesday in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said Hruska had worked on the member’s staff from August 2015 until January 2022, when she left for a new job at a federal agency.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia did not name the representative, but NBC News identified her as Kaptur.

According to court documents, the lawmaker had entrusted Hruska with personal credit card and bank account information as part of her official duties. Prosecutors said Hruska kept that information after leaving the office and later used the member’s bank account to pay balances on her own personal credit card.

The fraudulent transactions took place on 10 occasions between August 19, 2023, and July 30, 2024, according to prosecutors. They said the lawmaker did not use electronic banking and did not receive immediate bank alerts, allowing the theft to go undetected for more than a year.

Prosecutors said the total loss was at least $22,865.07. Because a long time had passed before the fraud was discovered, the lawmaker recovered less than 9% of the stolen money through fraud compensation.

Hruska is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23 and faces up to 20 years in prison, though any sentence will be decided by a federal judge.