{"id":21498,"date":"2020-02-19T16:03:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T23:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=63265"},"modified":"2020-02-19T16:03:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T23:03:00","slug":"wife-of-embezzler-in-aspen-skiing-co-scheme-blames-husband-at-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/wife-of-embezzler-in-aspen-skiing-co-scheme-blames-husband-at-sentencing\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife of embezzler in Aspen Skiing Co. scheme blames husband at sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Kerri Johnson walks to the courtroom at the Pitkin County Courthouse on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. <\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

While admitting that some things about their online business selling second-hand skis did not seem kosher, Kerri Johnson on Tuesday laid the blame for the years-long $6 million scheme squarely on her husband\u2019s shoulders. <\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, there were indications that something was off,\u201d Johnson said during her sentencing hearing in Pitkin County District Court. \u201cBut I made the decision to trust (my husband) and that was my mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

That decision \u2014 coupled with the magnitude and length of the theft from the Aspen Skiing Co. \u2014 led Judge Chris Seldin to sentence Johnson to 90 days in the Pitkin County Jail, five years of probation and 300 hours of community service for her role in the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were questions she should have asked,\u201d Seldin said, including why the $3 million in income they made over more than a dozen years was never reported. \u201cThere\u2019s sufficient evidence to justify a punitive sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, 49, was not taken into custody after Tuesday\u2019s hearing because Seldin allowed her to begin serving her jail sentence at 7 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s husband, Derek Johnson, is a former Skico executive who was in charge of the company\u2019s rental\/retail division for more than 15 years. During the course of that employment, he stole more than 13,000 pairs of skis from the company valued at about $6 million and sold them on eBay for about $3 million. <\/p>\n

Derek Johnson, who is also a former Aspen city councilman and mayoral candidate, pleaded guilty to felony theft<\/a> and was sentenced last month to six years in prison<\/a>. He is currently incarcerated at the Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado\u2019s largest prison located in the northeast corner of the state, where his estimated earliest eligibility for parole is December 2022, according to online prison records. <\/p>\n

The couple will jointly have to pay back $250,000 in restitution, which is the amount of Skico\u2019s deductible on the $6 million insurance claim the company filed. <\/p>\n

David Clark, Skico vice president and associate general counsel, urged Seldin on Tuesday to sentence Kerri Johnson to six months in jail and give her 10 years of probation and 500 hours of community service. He said the Johnsons\u2019 massive breach of trust was done for no other reason than simple avarice. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just two greedy people who wanted to live far beyond their means,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI wonder if she truly appreciates what she and her husband have done to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark said it is \u201cabsurd\u201d to believe that Kerri Johnson didn\u2019t know what was happening and simply believed Skico would give the couple 13,000 free pairs of skis to sell. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow could the cost of the goods be zero?\u201d Clark asked. \u201cThis is grave stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seldin said he could not legally impose six months of jail, and that 90 days was the maximum he could give her under the law. <\/p>\n

Prosecutor Don Nottingham noted that the evidence against Kerri Johnson wasn\u2019t as significant as the evidence against her husband. He said that was the main reason he agreed to give her a plea deal that took prison off the table in exchange for her guilty plea to felony theft. <\/p>\n

However, Kerri Johnson removed the Skico stickers from the skis she and her husband sold online, she listed the skis for sale on eBay, took payment for them and shipped them out in boxes paid for by Skico, Nottingham said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt really was her that ran the eBay business completely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nottingham also brought up the fact that the Johnsons weren\u2019t poor \u2014 Derek  Johnson made more than $100,000 a year as a Skico executive \u2014 and didn\u2019t appear to need the extra money they made. The lack of reasons for the theft speaks to the \u201cdepravity\u201d of the couple\u2019s actions, he said. <\/p>\n

Kerri Johnson, however, only ran the second-hand ski business so she could quit her bank teller job and stay home with the couple\u2019s children, said Dru Nielsen, her attorney. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe job was presented to her as a no-brainer by her husband,\u201d Nielsen said. \u201cShe did it without passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derek Johnson worked out the original plan to sell second-hand skis with Skico\u2019s blessing. Then when that arrangement ended after a couple years, Derek Johnson began taking skis without Skico\u2019s knowledge on his own, she said. Kerri Johnson didn\u2019t know the ins and outs of the ski business and didn\u2019t understand the details of buying and selling equipment, Nielsen said. <\/p>\n

Further, the extent of Kerri Johnson\u2019s bookkeeping for the eBay business consisted solely of paying quarterly sales taxes to the state of Colorado, she said. Kerri Johnson had no formal training as a bookkeeper and no college degree. <\/p>\n

Still, Kerri Johnson did notice nefarious signs signaling that the business wasn\u2019t \u201con the up and up,\u201d Nielsen said. For example, Derek Johnson told her not to talk about their business with members of the Aspen community, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo this is the situation of the proverbial ostrich who buried its head in the sand,\u201d Nielsen said. \u201cThat\u2019s where she messed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Kerri Johnson is ultimately not to blame for the embezzlement, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Johnson is the one who devised this scheme,\u201d Nielsen said. \u201cMrs. Johnson\u2019s role could have been done by anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Johnsons\u2019 three children figured prominently into Tuesday\u2019s proceedings. Their oldest son attended his mother\u2019s sentencing and sat with his grandmother in the first pew behind his mother during the hearing.<\/p>\n

Nottingham said his sympathies were with the children, but noted that simply having children is not a reason to avoid punishment for serious crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what the Johnsons did to their children,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Seldin asked Kerri Johnson who would take care of her two middle school-aged children while she is incarcerated in jail. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother is here as long as I need her,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Skico officials have said their employees were harmed by the Johnsons\u2019 actions, which included taking away bonuses because goals were not met and missing out on promotions and 401k contributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so sorry to all the people who\u2019ve been hurt by what has happened,\u201d Kerri Johnson said. \u201cIt hurts my heart every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kerri Johnson walks to the courtroom at the Pitkin County Courthouse on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times While admitting that some things about their online business selling second-hand skis did not seem kosher, Kerri Johnson on Tuesday laid the blame for the years-long $6 million scheme squarely on her husband\u2019s shoulders.  \u201cLooking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 12:49:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}