Elizabeth Larsen

The former executive director of a closed Minot homeless shelter has been charged with federal program theft and is set to plead guilty in September.

Elizabeth Larsen, also identified as Elizabeth Myers in court documents, was formerly the executive director of the nonprofit organization Project BEE, which was spun off from the YWCA in 2021.

Project Bee provided anti-poverty programs but faced financial instability shortly after Larsen abruptly resigned in December 2023. The organization partially reopened its Winter Warming Center on Jan. 1, 2024, but the board announced the permanent closure of the organization eight months later.

According to court documents, Larsen embezzled or converted $62,182 in Project BEE funds for her own personal use that had been awarded to the organization from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Community Development Block Grant National Disaster Resilience Funds through the City of Minot between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2023. According to the information, Larsen used $55,199 of the funds, using Project BEE’s debit card to pay for childcare, pet supplies and other personal expenses, and $5,983 from the organization’s operating account to pay her personal rent.

The charges against Larsen were preceded by a 2024 lawsuit filed by Ward County against Project BEE, claiming it misused more $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. The case settled in 2024 through an exchange of one of Project Bee’s properties for a reduction of $180,000 from the claim.

Larsen faces up to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of $250,000, along with supervised release and probation. North Dakota U.S. Attorney Nicholas Chase noted in the plea agreement that despite findings by investigators that Larsen took steps to change Project BEE’s electronic records, this action occurred prior to law enforcement’s investigation into this case “and was not done to thwart the investigation or prosecution,” and therefore should not be factored into the federal sentencing calculus.

The prosecution recommended a sentence of two years’ probation and that she pay full restitution in exchange for the state forgoing charges, including wire fraud, mail fraud, federal program theft, theft government property or any other related federal fraud or theft charges during the period of her employment as executive director of Project BEE.

Larsen is scheduled to appear for a change of plea and sentencing in U.S. District Court on Sept. 23.