Former Project BEE director sentenced
Theft aftermath still weighs on community
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BISMARCK - The former executive director of Project BEE in Minot has been sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to felony theft in embezzling federal funds.
Elizabeth Larsen Myers was sentenced to three years of probation, rather than the two years in a plea agreement, in U.S. District Court in Bismarck on Wednesday, Sept. 23. She will serve probation in Boston, Massachusetts, where she currently lives. She also must pay restitution of $61,182 to the City of Minot, which was the amount investigators could determine Myers stole.
Minot Mayor Mark Jantzer, who attended the hearing, said despite Larsen Myers' statement of apology and promise of restitution, her report on her financial means did not indicate that she would be able to make repayment to the city quickly.
He said the prosecutor informed him the restitution plan will be set up by the parole officer, with a repayment timeframe of up to 20 years. Jantzer added the prosecutor was forthright about the limitations of the justice system and its inability to fix all the hurt caused in this case.
Among those hurt was Project BEE, which had provided homeless and anti-poverty services unavailable elsewhere in Minot before being forced to close in 2024.
"We cannot recover from this," said Erica Riordan, who was among Project BEE board members who attended the sentencing. "We are filing for dissolution. But there's no way we could have bounced back from the 'wreckage,' I guess, that she put us in, because, at the same time, we have no trust from donors or funding partners."
The downtown building that was headquarters for Project BEE's homeless program is now owned by the bank, she added.
Riordan said the Project BEE board determined a large sum of money, not just from the city and county but from other grants, disappeared during the time the board was hearing from Larsen Myers, as director, that things were going well. The board had heard from its director that a mobile shower was benefitting the community when it was never put in use, Riordan said in a statement read at the hearing.
When the board began questioning financial discrepancies, Larsen Myers began moving and changing data, making determining the full extent of the loss more difficult and leaving questions that still remain unanswered, she told the court.
"Meanwhile, Liz was able to leave and move across the country. She did not have to remain and look these families and individuals in the eye and tell them that the low-barrier shelter they depended upon would no longer be available. She did not have to face the parents who relied upon the diaper pantry. She did not have to tell employees they were losing their jobs," Riordan stated in her remarks. "Consider what the proven amount of $62,000 could have provided to the very people Project BEE existed to serve. It represents the equivalent of approximately 130,000 meals for hungry individuals or enough diapers and wipes for over 200 babies for an entire year."
Riordan said following the hearing that the board has around $60,000 from selling a truck purchased by Larsen Myers that will be returned to the City of Minot. Because of the deception around the embezzlement, tracking funds has been difficult, but the money used in the truck purchase definitely belongs to the city, she said.
In 2021, the City of Minot had contracted with Project BEE as the subrecipient of Community Block Grant-National Disaster Resilience funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to be used in the development of Broadway Circle. Broadway Circle included construction of a family homeless shelter and low- to moderate-income apartments.
The relationship with the city and Project BEE ended with Project BEE's financial instability, which came shortly after Larsen Myers abruptly resigned in December 2023.
According to court documents, Larsen Myers converted Project BEE funds awarded through the National Disaster Resilience Program for her own personal use during 2023. According to the information, Larsen Myers 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.
A 2024 lawsuit filed by Ward County against Project BEE claimed the nonprofit misused more $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. The county accepted an exchange of a Project Bee parking lot for a reduction of $180,000 from the claim.
The court received a number of victim statements, including those from the Minot City Council and Project BEE board members and on Wednesday, new statements from John Zakian, who previously oversaw the city's National Disaster Resilience Program; city council member Eric Locken, who formerly worked for Project BEE; and Scott Burlingame, executive director of Independence, Inc., who has been active in nonprofit coalitions and is a former city council member.
The Minot City Council and Project BEE both had requested accountability in the form of incarceration.
Riordan said a tougher sentence would have helped acknowledge the current epidemic of thefts from nonprofits.
"We need to show that there are big consequences to these actions," she said.
Jantzer said the judge was sympathetic to the request but based on the amount of the theft, Larsen Myers' lack of a previous record and the cost of incarceration, he declined to include incarceration in the sentence. It also was noted Larsen Meyers would serve in a halfway house rather than a federal prison if incarceration were to be imposed, Jantzer said.
The probation comes with several stipulations, including a monthly payment plan for restitution, mandated mental health counseling and a requirement that Larsen Myers' financial records be fully open to the parole officer. The parole officer can require Larsen Myers be held in a halfway house if issues arise with her probation.
Jantzer said the closure of the case brings mixed feelings.
"It is satisfying in the sense that you know the court case is concluded. It's certainly not satisfying from the standpoint of what the community was put through and what the community lost in terms of services that Project BEE was providing, the struggle to complete the family homeless shelter and those kinds of things," he said. "On the other hand, this defendant will have a felony on her record for the rest of her life and will be held to making these restitution payments - however long that goes on."