Mobley. | Photo via City of Fortuna.

On Wednesday, former Fortuna City Councimember Christina “Kris” Ann Mobley pleaded guilty in federal court to four counts of felony fraud. The crimes were part of a two-year embezzlement scheme Mobley executed while employed as a business manager at Fortuna-based Beacom Construction Co.

Mobley, who was elected to the Fortuna City Council in 2022, abruptly resigned in January in the midst of an FBI investigation into her crimes. She was indicted just over a week later for allegedly stealing more than $500,000 from her employer over the course of almost three years.

The Outpost has obtained an excerpt from the sealed plea agreement in which Mobley acknowledges her guilt and explains in detail how she fraudulently issued company checks to herself, arranged electronic payments to cover her personal credit card debts and falsified her vacation time and payroll checks, ultimately embezzling more than $586,000 from Beacom Construction.

Mobley pleaded guilty to just four of the 10 counts listed in her indictment. In the leaked plea statement she says was effectively the chief operating officer at Beacom, giving her broad access to the firm’s accounting and bookkeeping systems.

Starting in or around January of 2022, Mobley issued a series of checks from the company’s business bank accounts to cover personal expenses, including cash advances at casinos, mobile gambling, restaurants and more.

Mobley also admits to using wire services to arrange nearly $300,000 in electronic payments from Beacom’s bank accounts to her own Capital One credit card account. She had access to blank, pre-signed checks from the company’s owner, for use when he was out of town, and from August 2022 through October 2024 she issued 23 of those checks to herself totaling roughly $51,900, according to the statement.

Lastly, Mobley admits to falsely inflating her vacation time, overstating the number of hours she worked and giving herself unauthorized bonuses over a span of about two years.

Mobley’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 18, 2026.

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