A former finance manager for the Salvation Army’s metro Atlanta region pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling more than a quarter-million dollars from the charity over a two-year period.
By the time officials caught on to his scheme, Gary Hilliard had stolen more than $272,000 from the Salvation Army Metro Atlanta Area Command, said John Horn, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
“The Salvation Army provides a wide range of charitable programs and services to needy citizens in our community,” Horn said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Mr. Hilliard chose to disregard his former employer’s motto of ‘Doing the Most Good’ by fraudulently diverting charitable funds to his own use without regard for the underprivileged who are in such desperate need of this help.”
The Salvation Army hired Hilliard in 2008, entrusting him to supervise accounts, as well as approve vendor invoices and countersign checks to vendors. In December 2010, court testimony showed, he began abusing those privileges.
Hilliard, now 47, embezzled thousands by creating bogus invoices, authorities said. He submitted them to the nonprofit’s accounts-payable department, passing them off as legitimate bills from Salvation Army vendors and business partners, testimony showed. Hilliard, head of the department, approved the invoices, or made sure they were OK’d, evidence showed.
He counter-signed the checks in his role as finance manager, then obtained or forged any other required signatures. He deposited them into bank accounts he controlled, according to court records.
Initially, Hilliard deposited the checks into his personal checking and savings accounts, but in June 2011, he created bank accounts in some vendors’ names. Into them he deposited more fraudulent checks, testimony revealed. To do that, he submitted three separate, false sworn applications in Cobb County. On each, Hilliard said he represented a vendor and was authorized to do business in the county. He opened a bank account in each vendor’s name, and used them to deposit more checks, investigators said.
His scheme fell apart two years after it began when Hilliard’s bank noted a discrepancy on a name on a Salvation Army check. It contacted the charity, which fired Hilliard. It also got in touch with federal officials.
A criminal complaint filed Nov. 12 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta charged Hilliard with embezzling.
Hilliard, of Mableton, is scheduled for sentencing March 31.
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