A now-former treasurer of two Lakeville gymnastics booster clubs is accused of stealing over $80,000 from the groups’ bank accounts.

Holly Nichole Flood, 46, of Lakeville, was charged by summons in Dakota County District Court with two counts of felony theft in connection with allegedly embezzling from the Lakeville South High Gymnastics Booster Club and Lakeville Gymnastics Booster Club.

Flood was treasurer of one club from April 2019 to March 2024, the other from February 2019 to June 2024, when she resigned after a financial review of the clubs’ accounts, the criminal complaint said.

Flood is scheduled to make a first court appearance Dec. 9. An attorney is not listed in the court case file, and a message left for Flood asking for comment was not returned Wednesday.

According to the Oct. 31 complaint, Lakeville police received a report in July 2024 about missing funds from the clubs. The reporting party told officers that Flood, the clubs’ former treasurer, may have used club funds for personal purposes.

The reporting party said Flood had recently stepped down as treasurer after a financial review showed a large number of checks written to Flood, ATM withdrawals at casinos and other spending not tied to the clubs.

When club members asked Flood for account information and financial documents, she refused to cooperate, the complaint said.

In an interview with police, Flood said she sometimes paid for things for the clubs out of her personal finances and would later reimburse herself for those expenses. She said she retained some documentation of the clubs’ finances, including for her reimbursement as her time as treasurer.

Officers asked Flood for the documentation, which she provided about a week later. However, in a follow-up interview the same day, Flood “became emotional” and said she had taken money from the clubs after getting into personal financial problems, the complaint said.

She said she “never tried to hurt the clubs and attempted to pay back what she had taken,” the complaint read.

When questioned about the ATM withdrawals, Flood said she gambled to pay her expenses and pay back the clubs’ money.

Officers later received Flood’s casino gaming records and discovered she had lost an estimated $41,000 between 2022 and 2023.

A police analysis of the clubs’ financial records showed Flood stole nearly $51,000 from one club account between March 2021 and 2024. With the other club, police determined Flood took just over $32,000 between August 2022 and June 2024, the complaint said.

Flood did pay back one club about $30,300, mostly through a cashier’s check after she resigned as treasurer, the complaint said.

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The victims, all Spanish speakers, were approached at church and promised legal help with immigration issues — for a price.

But authorities say the promised legal help was a scam and the attorney they were told would help them does not exist.

The ringleader of the scam, Kira Milany Romero Pinto, 40, of Lake Elmo, is now facing a felony racketeering charge and 11 felony counts of theft by swindle in Washington County District Court.

Pinto’s husband, Denis Rigoberto Aquino Martinez, 40, of Lake Elmo, and Luis Baltazar Leiva Aquino, 48, of Lakeville, also were charged for their roles in the scam.

In all, the three scammed more than 25 victims out of more than $563,000 during an almost two-year period, starting on Jan. 1, 2023, according to the Washington County Attorney’s Office and Dakota County Attorney’s Office, which are jointly prosecuting the cases.

The scams allegedly started with Pinto contacting prospective victims at church — either in Woodbury or Inver Grove Heights — and then offering assistance with immigration services, prosecutors say.

Pinto claimed she was connected to “a high-powered immigration attorney named Isabella Jason who could help them either obtain legal status in the United States or obtain citizenship more quickly,” Washington County Attorney Kevin Magnuson said. “The defendants would tell the victims that they needed money — usually cash — to retain the attorney. The defendants would require the victims to sign ‘contracts’ promising legal services for their money.”

The case, Magnuson said, is “a disturbing example of individuals exploiting trust within immigrant communities. We are committed to holding accountable those who prey on vulnerable residents seeking help and stability.”

Pinto told the victims that she could “help them in various ways, including legal assistance for immigration issues, obtaining visas for loved ones abroad, and assisting with unpaid bills in exchange for a monetary payment,” according to the criminal complaint filed against her.

In one case, she offered to sell the pastor of a church in Inver Grove Heights a $12,000 “golden card” that would give him the ability to help others get United States citizenship, the complaint states. “(But) at no point did any victim receive the documents or services promised by (Pinto).”

The pastor told police that Pinto “would often tell potential victims that there are laws in place which prohibit her from just ‘helping’ one person, so she would tell the victims to recruit other individuals to be ‘helped’ by her,” the complaint states.

Pinto required many of the victims to make advance cash payments in order to receive the services, with several of the payments taking place at her and Martinez’ residence in Lake Elmo, the complaint states.

One victim told police that he began giving Pinto cash in 2023 to help his wife gain U.S. citizenship. In total, between 2023 and 2024, he paid Pinto $22,000, the complaint states.

“In May 2025, (he) stated he took his wife to (Pinto’s) residence in Lake Elmo at (her) request so (his) wife could take a citizenship test,” the complaint states. “Neither (he) nor his wife received immigration documents or services as promised by Pinto.”

Aquino Martinez is charged with one count of felony theft by swindle and two counts of felony aiding and abetting theft by swindle. Leiva Aquino is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle. All three were arrested and remain in custody.

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Because the victims live in both Washington and Dakota counties, the cases are being jointly prosecuted by the Washington and Dakota county attorneys’ offices. Seven of the victims are Washington County residents, and the known loss to those victims exceeds $118,000, Magnuson said.

Assistant Washington County Attorneys Nick Hydukovich and Richard Podvin and Assistant Dakota County Attorneys Evan Frazier and Molly Doda are prosecuting the case. The charges were filed in Washington County District Court, and court hearings will be held in Stillwater.

The investigation is being led by the Mendota Heights Police Department, with assistance from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Cottage Grove Police Department, Inver Grove Heights Police Department, Lakeville Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and took his car with a child in the back seat and drove off from the scene of a raid in Los Angeles, advocates and family said Wednesday.

On a video provided by immigrant advocates, masked and armed agents are seen arresting a man by his car in a parking lot while his 1-year-old daughter is strapped into a car seat in the back. After the man is led away, agents are seen getting into the front of the car and driving off with the girl still inside.

The man is a U.S. citizen who was at the scene of a federal immigration raid at a Home Depot store in Los Angeles, said Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. The firm, which handles immigration cases, was contacted by community members for help reuniting the family, but isn’t representing the man because he is American, she said.

“It was a dangerous act to have armed men get in a car with that child and remove her from the situation,” Toczylowski said, adding relatives picked up the child later that day from federal offices in Los Angeles. “They should have followed protocols that had the best interest of that child in mind.”

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U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to questions about why agents drove the man’s car or took the child.

In an email, an agency spokesperson said a U.S. citizen was arrested for investigation of assault on Tuesday after carrying a hammer and throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents carrying out a raid at a Home Depot store in Los Angeles while a child was in his car. Five immigrants were arrested during the operation on suspicion of immigration violations, the spokesperson said.

It was not immediately known where the man was on Wednesday, more than 24 hours after his arrest. His mother, Maria, told reporters, the family received a call from an unknown number Tuesday to pick up the girl at Border Patrol offices in Los Angeles, so they did. She said the child is fine but asking for her father, who was born in California and works in the restaurant industry.

Maria said she and the girl are also U.S. citizens. She declined to provide her last name to protect her granddaughter’s identity.

“It’s something very frightening,” she said in Spanish after seeing the video. “You don’t know who those people are.”

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS Direct File, the electronic system for filing tax returns for free, will not be offered next year, the Trump administration has confirmed.

An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that “IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.”

The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical. However, it faced criticism from Republican lawmakers, who called it a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist (though they are difficult to use), and from commercial tax preparation companies, which have made billions from charging people to use their software.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also the current IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that there are “better alternatives” to Direct File. “It wasn’t used very much,” he said. “And we think that the private sector can do a better job.”

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The Center for Taxpayer Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request for IRS’ latest evaluation of the program and the report says 296,531 taxpayers submitted accepted returns for the 2025 tax season through Direct File. That’s up from the 140,803 submitted accepted returns in 2024.

Direct File was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by Biden in 2022. The Democratic administration spent tens of millions of dollars developing the program.

Last May, the agency under Biden announced that the program would be made permanent.

But the IRS has faced intense blowback to Direct File from private tax preparation companies that have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 preparing returns each year.

The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency slashed their way through the federal government. But The Associated Press reported in April that the administration planned to eliminate the program, with its future becoming clear after the IRS staff assigned to it were told to stop working on its development for the 2026 tax filing season.

As of Wednesday, the Direct File website states that “Direct File is closed. More information will be available at a later date.”

The Washington Post and NextGov first reported on the email to state comptrollers confirming the program would not be offered next year.

Adam Ruben, a vice president at the liberal-leaning Economic Security Project, said “it’s not surprising” that the program was eliminated.

“Trump’s billionaire friends get favors while honest, hardworking Americans will pay more to file their taxes,” he said.