American Horse Council accuses former employee of stealing almost $600,000

A former office employee of the equine industry’s federal lobbying organization, the American Horse Council, has been accused of stealing nearly $600,000 from the operation during a five-year span, according to a lawsuit filed this week by the AHC.

The employee, Ashley Furst, was fired in June after AHC officials confronted her with evidence of her theft, according to the lawsuit. Furst had been hired in 2010 as an office administrator and was later promoted to the organization’s director of communications. The thefts occurred from 2013 until 2018, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, where Furst and her husband moved in the summer of 2017 under a telecommuting agreement with the AHC, lays out a brazen series of alleged schemes by Furst to transfer AHC funds to herself through checks with forged signatures, fraudulent PayPal transfers, and altered payroll records to hide a raise Furst allegedly gave to herself.

The AHC said in its lawsuit that it has referred the matter to the FBI and that the FBI is conducting an investigation. The AHC also said it is continuing its own investigation.

The AHC said it first uncovered the fraud when a check it had issued to a consulting company to conduct an economic analysis was returned for insufficient funds on June 22. That began a review of the organization’s accounts with bank representatives.

“The president of the AHC and the bank’s branch manager compared several months of bank statements and determined the bank statements in the AHC’s files did not match the statements maintained by the bank,” the lawsuit states. “Among other things, the statements in the AHC’s files had been altered to remove and/or conceal numerous electronic transfers and payments made to loans and credit cards in Defendant Ashley Furst’s name. These alterations caused the statements in the AHC’s files to grossly overstate the actual available balance of funds in the account.”

The lawsuit states that Furst had applied for a loan on behalf of the AHC for $350,000 “ostensibly in hopes of replenishing stolen funds before the payment for consulting services was due.” The loan pledged AHC assets as collateral, the suit alleges.

The AHC’s independent auditor did not detect the fraud, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that Furst stole “at least $588,061.84” from the organization, with the vast majority, $442,560.98, in electronic transfers to her personal accounts. The suit includes exhibits that show differences between bank statements and the AHC’s own statements, with payments to Furst omitted from the AHC statements.

The American Horse Council is funded by a wide variety of equine interests, including a large number of Thoroughbred organizations. The suit states that the organization has had to dip into its investment fund to cover expenses as a result of the fraud.