State Probing Bonner County Missing Funds Two Former Road Department Employees May Face Charges
State authorities are investigating Bonner County’s road department after the county reported $100,000 or more may have been embezzled by two former employees.
“In the last 30 days, we noticed some things that didn’t seem to add up right. On the surface, it looked fishy to say the least,” Commissioner Dale Van Stone said Monday. “This appears very serious and it could have been going on for five years.”
County Prosecutor Phil Robinson has called the Idaho Criminal Investigation Bureau to review the county department and possibly pursue criminal charges. Two former road department employees are suspected of falsifying documents, purchasing items for the county that never existed, then keeping the money for themselves.
“Initially, we were looking for funds that appeared to be improperly applied to accounts, but it looks more like the money is gone rather than misapplied,” Robinson said. “We are looking at one or two people, and neither one is employed any longer by the county.”
At a minimum, $30,000 of taxpayer money is missing. The amount could be $100,000 or more.
County officials declined to name the former employees suspected of embezzling. The state has just begun its investigation, and Van Stone said the county is being cautious about naming any suspects at this point.
“It’s too early to start pointing fingers,” he said.
But the investigation does not involve former road department supervisor Red Riebe, according to two county officials. Riebe was under fire from residents for how he ran the department and maintained roads. Two commissioners voted to fire him last month and hire a county engineer to oversee the road and solid waste departments.
The missing money was taken by someone apparently using phony companies. An invoice would be drafted showing the county had purchased products from a fake vendor. A check then was sent to the bogus company that never provided any product or service.
The scheme was discovered after an employee punched in a wrong vendor number and one of the bogus companies popped up on the computer. The mailing address for the company was the same as one of the county employees.
“It was just a fluke they found it,” Robinson said, noting the amount that showed up on the computer was about $30,000 to the fake company.
Even if the company existed, it would be improper for an employee to profit by selling the county goods and services. “But I don’t think the vendors or property ever existed,” Robinson said.
The state investigation could take at least two months. The county already has turned over all of the documents it compiled in the case and is waiting for the state to interview current and former employees.
The missing money does little to bolster taxpayers confidence in local government.
“If this comes true and we do have someone embezzling, it’s going to look very bad,” Van Stone said. “We do our best to give taxpayers the most for their dollar. When we have people stealing from us that work for us, it’s hard to make rational sense to the taxpayers who look at us as a bunch of thieves.”
Last year, county treasurer Karen Weldon resigned after being charged with embezzling $12,000. She pleaded guilty to grand theft for writing county checks to herself and using a county credit card for personal items. She was sentenced to 60 days in jail and ordered to repay the money.
State authorities also are investigating possible theft of equipment, files and other paperwork from the county’s building department. The items turned up missing after commissioners voted to abolish the department and fire its eight employees in January.
The office apparently was stripped bare of computers, desks, and even staplers before it was closed. Some of the items were taken by other departments and returned but at least $10,000 worth of items still are missing.
, DataTimes