Former Spring Lake finance director charged with embezzling more than $500K from the town

Spring Lake’s previous finance director was arrested Friday by federal authorities and billed with embezzlement, financial institution fraud and aggravated identification theft.

Homosexual Cameron Tucker, 63, of Fayetteville, is accused of embezzling more than $500,000 from Spring Lake for the duration of her tenure as finance director and accounting technician for the city, in accordance to a statement produced by the U.S. Legal professional for the Eastern District of North Carolina.  An indictment also accuses her of carrying out the embezzlement through fraudulent checks that contains solid signatures of the mayor and city manager, the assertion said.

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U.S. Lawyer Michael Easley said in the assertion that metropolis govt officers are entrusted to devote taxpayer cash on general public requirements — not their have.

“Our prosecutors and legislation enforcement associates are committed to vigorously investigating all allegations of public corruption,” he reported.

Tucker is charged with a person depend of embezzlement from a area federal government acquiring federal funds, four counts of financial institution fraud, and two counts of aggravated identification theft.

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A 56-website page investigation report that was unveiled by Condition Auditor Beth Wood in March located that the town’s previous accounting technician, who also served as Spring Lake’s finance director for a lot more than a calendar year, utilised at least $430,112 of the town’s dollars for private use. The report did not name the technician, but stated in the footnotes that she served as the town’s finance director from March 2020 to April 2021 and as interim finance director from March 2020 to September 2020.

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Minutes of the city Board of Aldermen’s conferences present that Tucker served as finance director in February 2021 and was appointed interim finance director in March 2020.

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The report encouraged that the Spring Lake Board of Aldermen think about getting authorized motion versus the previous accounting technician. It accused the technician of producing 72 checks for her own use.

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The technician wrote 32 checks for a total of extra than $16,000 that were payable to Bragg Mutual Federal Credit rating Union and deposited into her individual financial institution account there, in accordance to the report.

The report stated 27 checks totaling additional than $151,000 were being designed out as payable to the technician, with 24 deposited into her personal account and a person deposited into her husband’s account at the credit rating union. Thirteen checks for a complete of more than $113,000 ended up created payable to Heritage Place Senior Residing and utilized to fork out regular monthly resident bills of the technician’s partner, the report said.

The FBI is investigating the circumstance, in accordance to the assertion. Assistant U.S. Attorney William M. Gilmore is the prosecutor.

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Community news editor Steve DeVane can be attained at [email protected]

This short article at first appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Previous Spring Lake finance manager arrested, charged with embezzlement