Alaska News

Former Matanuska Creamery manager headed to jail

The former manager of the Matanuska Creamery is going to jail. A federal judge in late May sentenced Kyle Beus to two months, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reported.

Beus was charged with fraud in connection with the finances of a Valley dairy that traces its roots back to the state's failed Matanuska Maid. He will begin serving his sentence after his daughter's wedding this summer, according to the newspaper.

After Mat Maid went out of business in 2007, the Matanuska Creamery was set up with financing from U.S. Department of Agriculture grants. Beus was accused of skimming $120,000 off those grants for his own use, but at a sentencing hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Tim Burgess Beus's attorney claimed his client managed to pay back all about $9,000 of that money.

Prosecutors called him "a cheat," who has "always gotten money by lying on grants or loans or by cheating someone." Beus's misconduct was first detected by Karen Olson, one of his creamery partners and a long-time player in the Alaska dairy scene. She put an end to what he was doing, but then, according to prosecutors, tried to cover up what had happen. She is now awaiting her own trial on charges of defrauding the government.

Anchorage Daily News/Alaska Dispatch Staff

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