A Texas woman was convicted of stealing more than a million dollars, and prosecutors say she spent much of her ill-gotten gains on TikTok influencers in a bid to become an influencer herself. Staci Blackmon was indicted in 2022 after three years of siphoning money from the company where she worked in Southlake, according to Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Lori Varnell.'She didn’t put the money anywhere and had nothing to offer.' Varnell said that Blackmon was given access to the account of an associate who had passed away and was tasked with figuring out the book-keeping. "Staci Blackmon actually befriended the heir of this senior partner and was helping her figure out where all he had accounts and all of this, and so she was literally walking through this with the person she was victimizing," Varnell explained to KDFW-TV. Varnell said Blackmon used a company credit card and sent nearly $900k to TikTok through PayPal. She would give that money to other influencers on the platform in order to try to become an influencer herself. And then she stole another $300k from the business. Prosecutors said Blackmon also spent the money on lavish trips and purchased a suite at games for the Dallas Mavericks. Varnell said Blackmon's spending made it nearly impossible to reclaim the money for the victims. "She didn’t buy any assets. She didn’t put the money anywhere and had nothing to offer, to payback, that was comparable to the amount that she stole," she continued. Blackmon will have plenty of time to practice her TikTok moves after being sentenced to 35 years in prison. "She is extremely intelligent," Varnell said. "She only ever graduated from high school, but that is no measure of how intelligent you are or how good you are at figuring out how to hide money — and she is very good at that." KDFW was unable to obtain a comment from her attorney, but it noted that court documents indicate they will file an appeal. Here's KDFW-TV's news video report about the conviction. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/blackmon-stole-money-tiktok-influencer