Lea este articulo en español aquí.
San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor told BenitoLink the county auditor’s office discovered “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in misappropriated funds used to purchase merchandise under fraudulent accounts from the San Benito County Free Library.
“We believe one person was involved,” Taylor said. “Potentially, a family member was involved as well. We are confirming that.”
The county has oversight of the library, Taylor said, and when the auditors’ office found a discrepancy, they called the sheriff’s department to investigate.
“That’s how we were involved initially,” Taylor said. “The investigation got to the point where we needed to call in for support from the FBI because we don’t have the expertise in forensic accounting.”
Finding what Taylor characterized as an amount “in the hundreds of thousands,” one task the FBI was brought in to resolve was the actual amount of money embezzled.
“We also don’t know how long it was going on,” Taylor said. “They are trying to get to the bottom of the actual number.”
Taylor said that the alleged suspects opened up a number of accounts that allowed them to order merchandise. No actual cash had been taken, he said, and an internal audit established that none of the library’s supply of Chromebooks, which had been purchased through a $11.8 million federal grant from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, were involved.
While merchandise, including camping equipment and electronics, were found at the home of the suspects, Taylor said he did not know if they planned to resell the goods.
Related BenitoLink articles:
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service, nonprofit news.