A 48-year-old former Bellevue, Washington woman has been ordered into custody to serve five months in prison for stealing the social security benefits intended for a disabled minor (a member of the Snoqualmie Tribe).

Akeatha Diane Akintola pleaded guilty on June 17 to theft of public funds for the $17,638 she stole from the tribal member.

At the sentencing hearing, the magistrate judge, S. Kate Vaughan, said she was struck by the fact that Ms Akintola “targeted a vulnerable victim”.

“(There is) no one more vulnerable than the victim in this case. The crime was an ethical breach beyond imagining,” the judge stated.

According to records filed in the case, Ms Akintola became a social worker for the Snoqualmie Tribe in January 2023. In September 2023, Ms Akintola applied by telephone to be the Social Security Representative Payee for a minor child with intellectual disabilities who was a ward of the tribe.

The child’s mother had died, leaving survivor benefits to the child. The tribe prohibits its social workers from becoming a representative payee for any child under its care.

Nevertheless, Ms Akintola used the child’s Social Security number and her own to apply to be the minor child’s representative payee and, once appointed, had the benefits intended for the child deposited into a bank account she controlled.

Ms Akintola spent the money deposited in the account for her own benefit, including a purchase from a North Bend retailer.

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

When Social Security reported that Ms Akintola was the representative payee, she denied it to her supervisor. She resigned from her position with the Snoqualmie Tribe the next day.

Speaking to the impact of the theft, a tribal representative told the court, “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. Ms Akintola did not just fail in that duty. She weaponised 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 traumatised child, exploiting that unearned trust for financial gain.”

The plea and sentencing hearing was originally scheduled for May 22, 2026, but Ms Akintola failed to appear. Prosecutors learned she had left the U.S. on May 20, 2026, and travelled to Togo using a passport issued in a different last name.

Ms Akintola appeared for the plea and sentencing hearing on June 17, and the judge ordered her to be taken into custody to begin serving the sentence immediately.

Ms Akintola must 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.