Woodbury man sentenced to prison for embezzling $145K from MSP Chick-fil-A
A former manager of the Chick-fil-A at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who stole nearly $145,000 from the fast-food restaurant — spending the loot on things such as jewelry, online sports betting and the adult website OnlyFans — was sentenced to a year in federal prison Tuesday and ordered to pay back the money.
Timothy Michael Hill Jr., 37, of Woodbury, pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to one count of wire fraud in connection with embezzling the money from his employer between September 2022 and October 2023. Four other counts of wire fraud were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
As manager of the Chick-fil-A, Hill was responsible for collecting and depositing daily cash receipts from the restaurant and the Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana at MSP, which are owned by the same company, The Grove Inc. Instead of depositing cash into a safe deposit box, as he was supposed to do, Hill pocketed approximately $144,819, according to the plea document.
Hill tried to conceal the theft by using future cash receipts, thereby creating a false impression that the cash deposits were delayed rather than stolen. Hill also sent emails to his employer's accounting staff, claiming he was belatedly depositing cash from earlier dates, when he really was using cash collected during the ensuing time period, federal court documents say.
In addition to his spending spree, Hill also transferred tens of thousands of dollars through Cash App to several people, including female airport workers in exchange for personal photos and videos, federal prosecutors say.
A grand jury indicted Hill of the charges on Jan. 30, and he was released from custody the next month on a personal recognizance bond.
Because he had no prior criminal history, he faced up to 16 months in prison on the single charge.
Hill's attorney, assistant federal defender Lisa Lopez, asked Judge Paul Magnuson in a court filing last week to give him probation and community service, and order him to pay back the money he stole. She said he has a "deep sense of regret and remorse" for what he did.
Hill's fiancée left him — ending a four-year relationship — and took their two young children with her, according to Lopez. "Mr. Hill hopes to earn her back by making only the right decisions since the bad choices he made in this case," Lopez wrote in the court filing.
Hill, who started at Chick-fil-A as a cook, said in the court filing that he has "regret and shame knowing that I let people at my company down, and I let my family down."
Hill's prison sentence, which was handed down at the federal courthouse in St. Paul, will be followed by two years of supervised release.
