* Yesterday Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias held a press conference to announce this crazy story:
A former state administrator was charged Tuesday with stealing $750,000 from the state treasury, in part to pay college bills, purchase a boat and go on a cruise.
Wow. I’ve heard of state employees receiving generous pension benefits, but she really hit the jackpot. Kirby, who retired from the state in 2006 before Giannoulias took office, was a 33-year employee there, overseeing a unit that processed state deposits.
A federal grand jury in the state capital indicted Kirby on charges of wire fraud and money laundering:
“This indictment represents a stunning disregard for the pubic trust and an appalling display of fraud by someone who was supposed to be responsible for protecting taxpayers’ dollars,” said Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose office uncovered the alleged wrongdoing, which predated his tenure.
* And how exactly did her master plan work?
In 2005, Kirby — a $67,000-a-year state worker — allegedly transferred $750,000 in government funds to a personal bank account she had established using her elderly mother’s address.
To cover that transfer, Kirby allegedly created paperwork falsifying the return of a $263,408 tax refund owed to a Downstate Pekin hospital. Later, in 2006, she allegedly took a generic deposit slip from the treasurer’s office and moved the remaining $486,591 from her own bank account back into the treasury.
Prosecutors alleged the net loss to state taxpayers was $263,408, money that she allegedly spent on a boat, a truck, a camper, a vacation to Orlando, a cruise, college tuition and a mortgage payment. The feds are now seeking the return of those funds.
* When interviewed, former Treasurer Topinka said “I guess it is conceivable that she could do this without anyone in the office knowing it. I was personally shocked by it, that it happened at all. But since it did, the state should throw the book at her as that kind of stealing is untenable. Makes me sick.”
If convicted on all counts, Kirby could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Giannoulias said his office has created safeguards to prevent similar problems, including multiple layers of review and backup documentation before such transfers are authorized.
* This is another job well done by the Treasurer, and is certain to please many tax payers. Glad to see that someone is doing their job…