How Two Women Allegedly Stole Nearly $1 Million from…

Mississippi’s Coahoma Community College, located in the impoverished Delta region, didn’t have money to spare due to significant drops in state funding in recent years. Yet two women who worked at the college allegedly stole almost $1 million through crafty embezzlement that occurred over four years, officials said.

In one of the state’s largest employee theft cases in decades, officials allege that former Coahoma Community College employees Gwendolyn Jefferson and Stacie Neal managed to take more than $750,000 (now valued at $981,000 including interest and investigative costs) between 2013 and 2017 to purchase items for themselves including watches, shoes, and a chandelier.

The median annual household income in Coahoma County, Mississippi $28,217 and the poverty rate is 35 percent.

The women worked together to use multiple government procurement cards to purchase gift cards from local Kroger and Wal-Mart stores and Amazon to “do whatever they wanted with them,” said White, according to mississippitoday.org.

Authorities said the two former employees managed to steal so much money for their own personal use because they worked together in a purchasing department, doctoring books to cover their tracks. Both of the former employees accused of embezzlement have been terminated from the college, a school spokesman said, according to mississippitoday.org.

“The institution will make a conscientious effort to recover all monies that were taken from CCC,” Marriel Hardy, Chief Communications Officer for CCC, told the news agency. “The College has implemented enhanced accountability controls in order to decrease the likelihood of these unfortunate behaviors happening in the future.”

Mississippi State Auditor Shad White announced the findings of an investigation into the embezzlement during a news conference held at the Coahoma County Courthouse late Monday. He said the former employees accused “bought watches, shoes, a chandelier and other items which totaled to $750,000 in purchases,” mississippitoday.org reported.

“The final tab, $981,600 – the largest individual demand coming from the auditor’s office in the last five years and the third largest individual demand over 20 years – includes principal, interest, and investigative costs.”

Coahoma Community College rescinded pay raises for employees and raised tuition in 2017 due to state budget cuts.

“It’s heartbreaking,” White said, according to WREG.com. “It makes you angry on some levels and it makes you want to hold them accountable. You think of all of the Mississippians who don’t get to spend nearly $1 million tax-free on top of their salary they are being paid.”

The embezzlement scheme was undetected for years at the community college but a slip-up tipped off officials who notified authorities.

“These are red flags and a lot of the red flags are people who make this sorta salary, but live a much higher lifestyle,” White said.

White said it isn’t wise for an office to have one person handling all purchasing functions. They should be separated, he said, so multiple people are looking at them.

Via Newsweek

Noxubee chancery clerk used taxpayers’ money to pay church…

The state auditor says Noxubee County Chancery Clerk Mary Shelton Washington used taxpayers’ money to pay church tithes.

“It should go without saying that you can’t use taxpayers’ money to pay your tithe to your church,” State Auditor Shad White said. “Elected officials have to use common sense. If you or an organization you belong to is benefiting from your position in the government, and the taxpayers are paying for it, odds are you are doing something wrong.”

Washington donated nearly $20,000 in public funds that were intended for office expenses to multiple local churches, White said.

Washington, Noxubee’s longtime chancery clerk, couldn’t be reached for comment.

White said the illegal charitable donations took place from January 2010 to December 2012.

Special agents from the state auditor’s office have delivered a civil demand to Washington to pay $38,555.78, which includes the nearly $20,000 donated, plus interest and investigative costs.

“We’re going to continue to make sure money like this is repaid to the taxpayers and officials are held responsible,” White said.

White, 32, became auditor in July after being appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant to serve the remainder of the four-year term of Stacey Pickering, who resigned as auditor to take the job of Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board director.

Via Clarion-Ledger

Mississippi: Ohio firm must pay $235,000 in failed expansion

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s state auditor is demanding that an Ohio business pay nearly $235,000 over a failed business expansion.

State Auditor Shad White says John Cullen must repay a $174,000 grant, plus $60,000 interest, to Mississippi or face a lawsuit.

Cullen is CEO of Payliance Inc. of Columbus, Ohio.

In 2010, he agreed to accept up to $400,000 in grant money from Mississippi. In exchange, what was then called Purepay Capital LLC would open an office in Oxford and hire at least 60 people within three years.

White says the company never submitted paperwork proving it created jobs. He says Payliance relocated Mississippi operations to Ohio.

Payliance didn’t immediately respond Monday to requests for comment.

Mississippi’s state economic development agency, the Mississippi Development Authority, referred the case to the auditor’s office.

Via AP