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After a female employee confessed to allegedly stealing from Greene County’s Office of the Treasurer, local officials are saying things could’ve been much worse. KSMU’s Chasity Mayes has more.
The felony stealing investigation that started on Friday hasn’t led Greene County to file charges against the suspect yet. But officials say she did confess to stealing from the Treasurer’s office.
The exact amount that was allegedly stolen is currently under investigation and will not be released until a private audit on the funds is finished.
Darrell Moore, Greene County Prosecutor says that he believes the amount will end up being anywhere between 500 and 25,000 dollars. Still, he says, the amount of money taken could’ve been much more.
In the meantime, Moore also says the county is looking into civil remedies such as seizing assets that belong to the alleged suspect. If the suspect has assets that would cover some of the missing funds, the county will then look at filing actions to cover some of the loss.
The Office of the Treasurer was already in the process of switching over its accounting systems to a paperless program when the alleged theft was discovered. Unfortunately, because the office had not completely switched all of its accounts to the new system, smaller discretionary accounts, like the ones found with missing funds, were being managed manually.
Those involved in the investigation are reassuring the community that finances such as property taxes shouldn’t be affected because those funds were already integrated into the new system.
For KSMU News, I’m Chasity Mayes.