{"id":356342,"date":"2026-06-30T21:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356342\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T21:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:51:10","slug":"texas-man-admits-embezzling-3-2-million-to-pay-student-loans-fuel-online-gambling-prosecutors-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356342\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas man admits embezzling $3.2 million to pay student loans, fuel online gambling, prosecutors say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/texas\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Texas man<\/a> who siphoned off millions from his employer to wipe out tens of thousands in student loan debt and bankroll extensive online gambling has pleaded guilty to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/tag\/embezzlement\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">federal embezzlement charges<\/a>, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell David Slentz, 34, of Kyle, pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzling more than $3.2 million from Austin Freight Systems, according to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Western District of Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Financial oversight role detailed<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Slentz held broad responsibility for Austin Freight Systems&#8217; finances, managing accounting operations, overseeing financial reports and internal controls, and handling vendor payment requests submitted to JPMorgan Chase.<\/p>\n<p>Between October 2023 and March 2025, Slentz executed 147 fraudulent payments, diverting $3,277,937.35 into his personal accounts via interstate wire transfers. He used part of the stolen money to make two student loan payments \u2014 $25,000 and $33,887. He also gambled heavily on an online platform, depositing and winning more than $1 million, the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office said.<\/p>\n<p>Charges and court proceedings<\/p>\n<p>Slentz was charged on May 14, appeared on June 8, and pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud and engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived proceeds.<\/p>\n<p>A federal judge will determine Slentz&#8217;s sentence based on U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutory factors.<\/p>\n<p>Investigation led by the FBI task force<\/p>\n<p>The FBI Austin White Collar Crime Task Force handled the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>CBS News Texas will provide updates as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas man who siphoned off millions from his employer to wipe out tens of thousands in student&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8372,430,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-356342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-embezzlement","tag-north-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}