SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — A woman in Wall, Texas, has, as of Aug. 9, 2023, become the center of an investigation into the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Wall Co-Op Gin.

In an affidavit for a search warrant for the home of 45-year-old Mina Abbott, an investigator with the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office states that, during early August 2023, information was gathered from an investigation into long-term money theft that had been occurring at the Wall Co-Op. Then, on Aug. 8, the affidavit reads that a subpoena was issued to First Financial Bank for the co-op’s bank records. Chris Evatt, the president and CEO of First Financial Bank, spoke with investigators and told them that Abbott had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of several years.

The affidavit goes on to read that the investigator then conducted a consensual interview with Todd Kolls, a San Angelo businessman who knew Abbott for “approximately 10 years because she was the treasurer of his baseball team,” on Aug. 8. Kolls is also stated in the affidavit to be the first person to come forward about the money theft, being attributed as “the ‘outcry’ which got the criminal investigation started.”

The affidavit states that Kolls told the investigator that Abbott had contacted him on July 30 to ask if the two could meet on July 31. According to a summary of Kolls’ interview in the affidavit, Abbott told him that “she was going to federal prison” and that “she had been stealing money from the Wall Co-Op ‘for many years.'” The affidavit holds that Kolls also said that Abbott told him that she was directed by some of the Wall Co-Op’s board members to commit or assist them with crop insurance fraud.

According to the affidavit, Kolls told the investigator that Abbott explained to him that she planned to repay the money she had stolen from the co-op by opening an online boutique store and that she had already purchased a number of clothing items. She then showed him pictures and videos taken from her residence, which Kolls described as a “hoarder house.” The pictures and videos depicted boxes stacked from floor to ceiling with a small walkway made to navigate the house. The affidavit reads that Kolls also stated that one video showed Abbott’s dog, which he described as a “skinny brown lab-looking dog.”

According to the affidavit, Kolls also told the investigator that Abbott admitted to him that she had been stealing money from the co-op by writing Wall Co-Op business checks to herself. The affidavit also holds that Kolls said that, from what he gathered, the amount of money taken from the business amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The affidavit reads that Kolls also said that Abbott showed him a long text message on her cellphone that she claimed was sent to Frankie Schwartz, the vice president of the Wall Co-Op. The message was a confession to stealing money from the business, during which she also provided details about the thefts.

After a search warrant was issued in Tom Green County, investigators took multiple items from Abbott’s San Angelo home, including a cell phone, a red bag containing planners and notes, two Wall Co-Op credit cards and checks from Wall Co-Op that were issued by First Financial Bank

The investigation is still ongoing. There have been no arrests made as of the time of publication.