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, bank fraud and aggravated id theft.

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

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U.S. Legal professional Michael Easley explained in the assertion that metropolis authorities officials are entrusted to shell out taxpayer cash on public desires — not their own.

“Our prosecutors and regulation enforcement companions are committed to vigorously investigating all allegations of community corruption,” he explained.

Tucker is billed with 1 rely of embezzlement from a area authorities getting federal money, 4 counts of bank fraud, and two counts of aggravated id theft.

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A 56-webpage investigation report that was unveiled by Condition Auditor Beth Wood in March observed that the town’s former accounting technician, who also served as Spring Lake’s finance director for much more than a 12 months, employed at the very least $430,112 of the town’s revenue for personalized use. The report did not identify 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 exhibit that Tucker served as finance director in February 2021 and was appointed interim finance director in March 2020.

Tale carries on

The report suggested that the Spring Lake Board of Aldermen consider getting authorized action in opposition to the former accounting technician. It accused the technician of creating 72 checks for her individual use.

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The technician wrote 32 checks for a total of extra than $16,000 that have been payable to Bragg Mutual Federal Credit rating Union and deposited into her individual lender account there, according to the report.

The report reported 27 checks totaling far more than $151,000 had been manufactured out as payable to the technician, with 24 deposited into her personalized account and just one deposited into her husband’s account at the credit union. Thirteen checks for a full of more than $113,000 had been made payable to Heritage Location Senior Dwelling and made use of to pay out every month resident expenditures of the technician’s partner, the report stated.

The FBI is investigating the scenario, in accordance to the assertion. Assistant U.S. Legal professional William M. Gilmore is the prosecutor.

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Neighborhood news editor Steve DeVane can be reached at [email protected].

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