INDIANAPOLIS — A Spencer resident, and a former employee of the Indiana University Foundation, has been sentenced to prison after she embezzled thousands of dollars in foundation donations.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, 64-year-old Teresa Maners was sentenced to 366 days in federal prison after she pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Maners was first employed with the foundation as a depositor and payroll deduction associate in 1988. The release said Maners reportedly stole around $326,334 over the course of nearly four years by taking cash before recording it in the foundation’s accounting system.

To hide the stolen funds, Maners withheld checks from the day’s deposits and substituted those checks in a subsequent day’s deposit to hide the cash. The release said that Maners also wrote checks to the foundation from her personal bank account to cover differences between the substituted donor checks and the stolen funds.

“For years, this defendant abused her position of trust to line her own pockets and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in charitable donations from a foundation dedicated to advancing important educational programs in our state,” U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers said in the release. “Our office and the FBI are dedicated to identifying criminals who steal from and defraud our charities, businesses, and government organizations and holding them accountable. The federal prison sentence imposed here demonstrates that financial crimes cause serious harms and merit serious punishment.”

Following the federal prison sentence, Maners will serve two years probation, as well as be required to pay $326,334.64 in restitution.

“Charitable organizations like the Indiana University Foundation count on people in positions of trust to act in the interests of organization and its mission rather than taking advantage of their position for personal gain as the defendant did,” FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert J. Stapleton said in the release. “The FBI will continue to identify and investigate those who choose to commit fraud and enrich themselves at the expense of others.”