A former Chehalis West Assisted Living Community employee accused of stealing over $5,000 from the facility via fraudulent checks while employed there in 2022 is now facing felony charges.
Robin M. Selstad, 50, of Chehalis, was charged July 19 in Lewis County Superior Court with one count each of forgery and first-degree theft after the Chehalis Police Department completed an investigation that began on Dec. 27, 2022.
At the time, an administrator with Chehalis West reported that Selstad had deposited four “fraudulent checks made to appear as employer checks from Chehalis West,” according to court documents.
A total of $5,051.44 had been deposited into Selstad’s bank account in the form of four separate checks, each for $1,262.86 with the issue date Dec. 14, 2022.
Investigators reportedly “found that there was a check made out to Selstad in March of 2022 for the exact same amount, and it appeared as if it was modified to pass off the subsequent fraudulent checks,” according to court documents.
When Chehalis West contacted her about the checks, Selstad allegedly “indicated she didn’t know anything about the checks or ill-gotten funds and made no effort to return them.”
When interviewed by police, Selstad allegedly “admitted she was using her (banking) app during the time that the alleged fraudulent checks were deposited, but she blamed the issue on being ‘hacked’ by someone who scammed her in teaching her how to invest in Bitcoin,” according to court documents. She allegedly “did not explain how the scammer would have obtained the check template and (allegedly) agreed no one had access to her phone.”
Selstad allegedly denied being contacted by Chehalis West about the fraudulent checks.
Investigators confirmed that the checks were deposited to Selstad’s account via mobile banking and found that Selstad had also been denied workers compensation she had requested “for an injury that did not happen at work” during the timeframe of the investigation, according to court documents.
The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office sent a summons notice to Selstad on July 19 requiring her to be present for a July 31 preliminary hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.
