Former LaPorte County deputy auditor indicted for theft, tax fraud
Suntimes News
September 11, 2014 - 2:16 pm
September 11, 2014 - 2:16 pm
(SOUTH BEND, Ind.) A former deputy auditor in northwest Indiana, who stole more than $150,000 from the county for which she worked, now faces federal fraud and embezzlement charges, according to federal prosecutors.
A federal grand jury in South Bend on Wednesday indicted Mary Ray, 66, of La Porte, Ind., on two counts each of theft of government monies and making false statements on a tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Indiana.
Between September 2011 and December 2012, when Ray was the deputy LaPorte County auditor, she stole the money from LaPorte County, and it included at least $5,000 in federal funds, federal prosecutors allege.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office said the indictment charges she stole “more than $5,000,” and “later events in process” show the total was over $150,000.
The indictment also claims she under-reported income on federal tax returns in 2011 and 2012 by not reporting the stolen money.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed a lawsuit against Ray in March, charging she embezzled $153,002.46 from the auditor’s office between September 2011 and December 2012.
The suit followed a State Board of Accounts audit and the freezing of Ray’s assets by the state in September 2013, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office.
The suit claims that until retiring, Ray’s duties included collecting payments from other county departments plus payments such as permit fees.
But she used “schemes such as check-kiting” so “certain checks paid to the county were not recorded or deposited, but instead were held for a period of time and then substituted for unrelated cash payments…,” according to the statement.
LaPorte County is a co-plaintiff in the suit, which seeks repayment of $153,002.46, plus $45,815.25 in accounting costs incurred by state examiners.
Ray is scheduled to appear Friday in U.S. District Court in South Bend on the federal charges, authorities said.
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