Blixt

I.

BACKGROUND

Blixt began working for Crawford and Company (Craw- ford) in 1998 in its Helena, Montana office. Crawford is a large international corporation, providing claim adjusting, vocational rehabilitation, and risk management services to its insurance company clients. At the time of the events leading to Blixt’s conviction, Timothy Fitzpatrick (Fitzpatrick) was the branch manager.

When checks arrived from insurance companies, they were forwarded from the Helena office, along with associated invoices and accounting information, to Crawford’s headquar- ters in Atlanta via commercial carrier. From 2003 to 2004, it was primarily Blixt’s responsibility to forward the packages.

The Helena branch maintained a checking account at Val- ley Bank, with Fitzpatrick having signature authority. Begin- ning in March, 2003, Blixt began to deposit client payments into the Valley Bank account. Blixt wrote approximately 352 checks from this account for her own personal gain, forging Fitzpatrick’s signature on each check. The total amount of the checks was in excess of $150,000.00.

In January, 2004, Blixt began sending false accounting information to Crawford’s Atlanta office to cover her…