Marshall woman accused of bilking family company and spending money at casino

MARSHALL, MINN. – The former accountant of a family construction company skimmed more than $95,000 from the business and spent it on gift cards, a Spotify subscription and trips to casinos among other things, county prosecutors said.

Rikki Lee Kor, 49, of Marshall was charged with 24 felony counts of fraud in connection with the alleged embezzling that spanned about a year until this summer.

Kor was charged Friday and is scheduled to make her first court appearance Oct. 1.

According to the criminal complaint:

Kor stole the money by issuing checks to herself and misusing business credit cards while working at KHC Construction in Marshall.

The company’s owner, Kim Christensen, described in the complaint as “not great with technology,” told a detective he hired Kor through a staffing company known as PeopleReady. The plan was that the company would screen recruits and he would pay them to pay the new hire. He offered Kor a job in June of 2023.

Christensen said he hired an outside accounting firm to help his business as they were moving offices, which is when they began to find suspicious transactions.

Christensen said the company began to find checks that were signed by him, but didn’t match his signature. Investigators found 12 checks for KHC Construction issued through First Dakota National Bank between Nov. 16, 2023, and April 12, all cashed at Prairie’s Edge Casino in Granite Falls.

Police discovered more than 50 forged checks totaling more than $83,000.

They also said they found 41 unauthorized charges on the company credit card totaling more than $12,000. Of these charges, 23 were for gift cards including at Chipotle Mexican Grill, and one for a Spotify music streaming subscription. Police said they saw Kor trying to sell gift cards on Facebook at discounted rates.

These purchases were in Christensen’s name, but listed with Kor’s personal email and phone number.

Christensen told police these purchases were not authorized work expenses and said Kor is no longer working at the company.

PeopleReady, the company used to hire Kor, said it also lost money in the affair — almost $35,000. They said the money Christensen was paying them for Kor’s salary was not going through. Christensen said Kor was responsible for sending the invoices and was shocked that he had an outstanding balance to the company. He said he suspects Kor was getting paid twice due to cashing the checks to PeopleReady at casinos.

PeopleReady and KHC Construction did not respond to a request for comment. Kor did not respond to a request for comment via email and a knock on her door.

Kor is also accused of putting herself in for more time than she was working, charging the company for cleaning services she was not assigned to perform, and using the business account to pay $900 in utilities for her house.