A grand jury indicted a former county employee and three other suspects Tuesday on charges they used the DeKalb pension fund to pay for airline tickets, utility bills and thousands of dollars on credit cards.
The pension fund allegedly paid a total of $47,000 in personal expenses through 112 separate transactions.
District Attorney Robert James said he is trying to determine how they obtained the routing numbers for the pension fund.
The $1.087 billion pension fund has since been reimbursed by the county’s bank, DeKalb spokesman Burke Brennan said.
The indictment alleges the scheme was organized by former DeKalb employee Lakia Scott and her boyfriend, Kevey Shelton. County officials say Scott, 24, who now lives in Orlando, worked for the work development department but was terminated in 2008. She did not have access to the pension fund, Brennan said.
Scott and Shelton, along with Robert Xtravaganza and Gabriel Ferretti, are charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Ferretti, 23, and Xtravaganza, 47, were the main beneficiaries in the scheme, each receiving about $11,000, James said. Ferretti and Xtravaganza live in San Francisco and their connection to the other two suspects is unknown.
The indictment alleges the four committed racketeering activities, including theft by taking, wire fraud and financial transaction card fraud between August 2008 and February 2009.
A DeKalb judge signed arrest warrants for all four on Tuesday.
Prosecutors say Shelton and Scott obtained the routing numbers and then used the pension fund to pay various bills, including a $300 Georgia Power bill, a $671 AT&T bill and a $600 SCANA Energy bill. Other payments were made to Macy’s, T-Mobile, Safeco car insurance and various credit cards.
Scott also is accused of opening credit cards in a Florida woman’s name.
“She maxes out the cards and then pays the credit card off with the routing number for the pension fund,” James said.
Prosecutors say Shelton, 31, of Stone Mountain solicited friends and neighbors who needed financial help. In one situation, a victim paid $900 to Shelton in exchange for having all of his outstanding bills paid, James said.
County finance staff noticed the unusual expenditures on the pension fund and contacted the district attorney.
“It’s good it was caught, but it never should have happened. It burns me up,” James said. “I hope the county has stepped up to the plate and put protections in place, especially since we don’t know if it was an inside job.”
Brennan said the county has several security checks in place, including monthly bank reconciliations involving at least two staff members, a special payment notification system, and restricted access to each transaction.
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