Cayle Leigh Klinekole, 48, former Executive Director of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache (KCA) Intertribal Land Use Committee, was sentenced in April 2021 to five years of probation (including one year of home confinement) and ordered to pay $194,573.18 in restitution for embezzlement and theft from the Indian tribal organization during her one-year tenure.

Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Intertribal Land Use Committee — Executive Director Embezzlement (2016–2017)

Outcome: Cayle Leigh Klinekole, 48, of Elgin, Oklahoma, former Executive Director of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache (KCA) Intertribal Land Use Committee, was sentenced on April 15, 2021 to five years of probation (including one year of home confinement) and 50 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $194,573.18 in restitution for embezzlement and theft from the tribal organization during her single year as executive director.

Klinekole served as Executive Director of the KCA Intertribal Land Use Committee from 2016 to 2017. During that one-year tenure, she stole from the organization by forging checks, entering into labor agreements without proper authorization, and making unauthorized purchases on tribal credit accounts — methods that collectively resulted in $194,573.18 in losses to the organization.

She pleaded guilty and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Charles Goodwin on April 15, 2021, to probation with home confinement and full restitution.

Primary Source: Former Tribal Employee Sentenced to Serve Five Years of Probation for Embezzlement and Theft