Former Alcoa, TN, official stole nearly $500,000, audit finds

A former employee in the Alcoa City School District diverted nearly $500,000 from the district and two professional organizations she represented and spent it on personal expenses, according to a news release from the state comptroller's office.

The investigation, in conjunction with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, covered a period during which the woman was as an assistant to the school district's federal projects administrator.

It was her job to help manage the district's spending of federal funds on various projects, the release states. She gave the district fraudulent invoices and, when she received the money from the district, diverted it into accounts set up on behalf of the Tennessee Attendance Supervisors Steering Committee and the East Tennessee Attendance Supervisors Association, two professional organizations where she served as treasurer.

Once the funds were in those accounts, she took money for herself through automatic teller machine withdrawals, checks written to cash and checks written to herself. .

Because the woman has not been indicted or arrested yet, she is not now being identified by name, officials stated.

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