A former exotic dancer from the US has been found guilty of a $1.4 million fraud against the Bermuda Government.

Teketa Thompkins, 33, received and laundered cash her lover Harrison Isaac Jr. looted from a Government bank account, and spent it like she?d hit the lottery jackpot.

The mother of one ? who is heavily pregnant ? now faces the likelihood of jail when she is sentenced next year.

She stared coolly at the jury as the foreman delivered unanimous guilty verdicts yesterday to nine counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

The jurors had earlier heard Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Abernethy urge them to find her guilty, saying: ?Why did she do it? For the simplest reasons you can imagine ? she liked the money. This is about greed.?

While Thompkins made no reaction to the finding of guilt, her lawyer Paul Madden promptly announced he would seek to have it quashed.

The crime was masterminded by Isaac, a 35-year-old Bermudian who abused his position as a Government Management Accountant. He illegally siphoned $2 million in total from an internet account the Accountant General?s Department held with the Bank of New York, wiring it to Thompkins and others during 2003 and 2004. He pleaded guilty to fraud charges and was jailed for more than four-and-a-half years last August.

Thompkins, whose arrest at Bermuda airport smuggling $26,000 hidden in her underwear preceded the arrest of Isaac, denied the charges against her. During a two-week trial in New York ? the venue of the looted account ? Georgia resident Thompkins insisted she had no idea the $1.4 million she received from the Government coffers was stolen.

Mr. Madden said she was duped by Isaac, who appeared to be the wealthy man of her dreams. Isaac himself claimed he used Thompkins? accounts to hide the stolen cash without her knowing its criminal origin.

The court heard Thompkins once served as a US soldier in Saudi Arabia. Her pastor travelled from Georgia to tell jurors she was a committed churchgoer and youth worker ? and she clutched a set of rosary beads throughout the trial.

But prosecutors painted an entirely different picture of the woman who worked as an adult entertainer in an Atlanta bar, and once ran a failed sex toy business. They insisted she conspired with Isaac to commit the fraud, knowing that the vast amounts of cash he sent her were stolen. This, they said, was the reason she shunted it around various bank accounts before sending it back to Isaac ? to try to hide its origins.

Even after she was arrested at the airport and spent a night in the Police cells, the brazen Thompkins carried on money laundering. Just days later, she sent Isaac $100,000 from one of her accounts.

Bank statements prosecutors showed the jury revealed she splashed out on extravagant shopping sprees and enormous cell phone bills during the fraud.

Mr. Abernethy said in his closing speech to the jury: ?It?s clear she was not a woman rolling in the dough before this happened ? people don?t spend this kind of cash unless they win the lottery. Except this defendant didn?t win the lottery, because that?s legal. She was offered bags of stolen cash and took them with open arms because she liked the money.?

It took the panel of eight men and four women just over seven hours to reach their unanimous verdict that she is guilty as charged.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that Thompkins remain on conditional bail, as she had been before. She ordered reports to be prepared and set the sentencing date for May 18 2007, after Thompkins has the baby she is due in February.

Wrapping up proceedings until then, Judge Swain told those assembled in court: ?I wish you all health and safety, and particularly Miss Thompkins for your new baby.?

Mr. Madden must file his application to have the verdict quashed by February.

Speaking after the hearing, he confirmed that neither his client?s ten-month-old son nor her unborn baby are Isaac?s.

Asked if she faces jail, he replied: ?There?s definitely a possibility of jail. Very definitely.?

He said of the verdict: ?It?s a very sad day for Miss Thompkins and her family. This has been a traumatic and stressful experience for her.?

The prosecuting team of Mr. Abernethy and fellow Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Goldin declined to comment. However, a spokeswoman for their office confirmed that the maximum prison sentence Thompkins could be given for the nine offences totals 165 years.

After the sentencing, Joyce Hayward, Bermuda?s Accountant General, said: ?We are glad that justice has been served.??

She added that authorities are working to try and recover the stolen money, although she declined to go into detail.