Former Executive Director of Ronald McDonald House Charities Facing Felony Charges for Theft From the Organization

Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 -- 1:01 PM

(Karen Madden, Marshfield News-Herald) The former executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Marshfield is facing felony charges for stealing more than $100,000 from the organization.

Accordng to Karen Madden with the Marshfield News-Herald, Iilee R. Pederson, 39, of Marshfield, who resigned her position on June 26, 2024, is charged with money laundering, five counts of making fraudulent writings, three counts of theft in a business setting and two counts of misdemeanor theft.

Pederson is scheduled to make her initial appearance on Oct. 27 in Wood County Circuit Court. According to the criminal complaint, on June 28, 2024, someone from Ruder Ware Business Attorneys contacted the Marshfield Police Department about the possible embezzlement of money from Ronald McDonald House Charities of Marshfield, 803 W. North St. in Marshfield by Pederson.

Pederson had been withdrawing money from the Ronald McDonald House checking account and depositing it into her personal PayPal account, according to the criminal complaint.

An accounting firm had found discrepancies between the charity's Associated Bank checking account and statements provided by Pederson while she was executive director.

Pederson was the only one reviewing and approving statements and the reports were saved to a PDF and then recycled, leaving no paper trail, according to the complaint.

The Ronald McDonald House Board did not give anyone permission to withdraw money from the account and deposit it into a PayPal account. Pederson did not give Ruder Ware an explanation for the transactions when they first talked to her.

She eventually said a family member, who owed money for drugs and alcohol, had accessed the Ronald McDonald House checking account, according to the complaint.

Pederson said she redacted the bank statements to cover up the transactions. When asked why the transactions continued after the family member died, Pederson said he was involved with "bad people" who continued to access the account after the family member's death.

Pederson said that by the time the family member died, she was in too deep to get out. The first transaction took place on June 13, 2022, and the last transaction took place June 12, 2024, according to the criminal complaint.

A detective checked Pederson's account at Simplicity Credit Union and found money from the PayPal account was transferred to Pederson's account the same day it was taken out of the Ronald McDonald House's account and put into the PayPal account, according to the criminal complaint.

The estimated total taken from the charity is $120,000. The organization recovered $100,000 from its insurance carrier, according to the complaint.

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