‘She weaponized her position of power’: Former Snoqualmie Tribe social worker sentenced for stealing benefits from autistic child

A former Snoqualmie Tribe social worker was sentenced to five months in prison for stealing benefits from an autistic child.

Akeatha Akintola, a 48-year-old woman who lived in Bellevue, pleaded guilty Wednesday to theft of public funds for the $17,638 she stole from the child, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Judge S. Kate Vaughan called the crime “an ethical breach beyond imagining” at the sentencing hearing.

Former Snoqualmie Tribe social worker deposited child’s benefits into account she controlled

Akintola became a social worker for the Snoqualmie Tribe in January 2023, according to records filed in the case. In September 2023, she applied to be the Social Security Representative Payee for a child with intellectual disabilities who was a ward of the Tribe. The child’s mother had died, leaving benefits to the child. Akintola spent the child’s money for her own benefit.

“The Tribe prohibits its social workers from becoming a representative payee for any child under its care. Nevertheless, Akintola used the child’s Social Security number and her own to apply to be the minor child’s representative payee and, once appointed as such, had the benefits intended for the child deposited into a bank account she controlled,” the attorney’s office stated.

In July 2024, after Akintola had been collecting the benefits for at least five months, she went with her supervisor to the Social Security Administration to find out what had happened to the child’s funds.

When Social Security reported that Akintola was the representative payee, Akintola denied it to her supervisor, according to the attorney’s office. Akintola subsequently resigned from her position with the Snoqualmie Tribe.

“In our profession, a social worker is meant to be a safekeeper. A protector for children who have been stripped of their safety, family, and stability,” a Tribal representative told the court. “Ms. Akintola did not just fail in that duty — she weaponized her position of power to systematically steal from a grieving, autistic child. Her future independence … This money was not a luxury. It was a lifeline. The defendant did not just steal money, she manufactured a false relationship of safety with a traumatized child, exploiting that unearned trust for financial gain.”

Akintola’s sentencing hearing was originally scheduled for May 22, but Akintola didn’t show up. Prosecutors found out she had left the U.S. and gone to Togo in West Africa using a passport in a different last name.

Akintola appeared for the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, and Vaughan ordered her to begin serving her sentence immediately. Akintola must also pay $17,638 in restitution to the Social Security Administration. She is precluded from becoming a Social Security Representative Payee for anyone in the future.

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