Moses Lake woman charged with theft, forgery

EPHRATA — A Moses Lake woman allegedly stole about $35,000 from her family’s business.

Brandi Ann Haug is charged in Grant County Superior Court with one count of theft in the first degree and 10 counts of forgery.

Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz set bail at $10,000.

Haug managed the finances for her parent’s business, Moses Lake Polaris, starting in 1997, according to a Moses Lake police report. The owners’ son told police she worked a few hours a day reconciling the accounts.

The owners reportedly received a call from the state of Washington, saying the taxes for 2007 weren’t paid. They also received a notice from Polaris stating the company was allegedly considering discontinuing the franchise if a financial problem wasn’t dealt with, according to the police report..

When the owners’ son investigated, he reportedly found a series of unauthorized checks, credit card purchases and business account purchases.

Haug allegedly wrote checks to herself, opened a credit line in her mother’s name, opened a credit card in the company’s name and used the company’s account at Dell Computers for personal items, according to the police report.

When police questioned Haug, she allegedly admitted to writing checks to herself, because she was working eight to nine hours a day and believed she deserved a pay check, according to the police report. She also allegedly told police she didn’t start stealing from the company until she was laid off from Genie in March 2008.