Ex-Richmond school employee embezzled grant money for needy families
A former Richmond city school employee has pleaded guilty to stealing almost $15,000 in federal funds and is facing up to 10 years in prison when sentenced Oct. 13.
Kelli Payne, 40, of Ashland, pleaded guilty under the terms of an agreement approved by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. In addition to prison time, she faces a fine up to $250,000 and three years of supervised probation.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, the City of Richmond Public Schools received a federal grant in 2005 for the Even Start education program designed to improve the academic performance of low-income families.
Payne was hired by the school system to serve as a coordinator for the program to ensure that all of the federal money reached low-income families. Instead, Payne took nearly $15,000 by submitting fraudulent invoices for reimbursement.
She deposited Even Start money into her personal accounts and then withdrew it for her personal use and for purchasing pre-paid VISA gift cards ostensibly to reward successful families, but then using the gift cards for her personal use.
The government said Payne stopped working for the city schools in 2008 when the Even Start grant expired. The case was investigated by the Office of the City of Richmond Auditor and the FBI.
-- Frank Green
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Most of the Richmond City School teachers embezzle their salary when they fail to educate students.
Staff Reports/Frank Green: How about a little more research and reporting on what exactly the Even Start program entailed? Might help your readers better understand what this loss in money meant to the families affected.
“while you can blame the school systems, the economy, the weather, cold french fries from mcdonalds, and bad haircuts, the fact is, there will always be people taking advantage of the system regardless of where you are at…richmond, henrico, chesterfield…it doesn’t matter, especially white collar crimes such as this”
Datony, I don’t think anyone here is unaware that bad people do bad things at all levels. But, Richmond has a pattern of corruption, mismanagement, and repetition of mistakes that is at a much higher level than the surrounding counties.
I’m not saying divide up Richmond but the time to “clean house” is long overdue.
I’ve viewed some very interesting point of views here…..wow ‘dogtown’..that is something else, what you are suggesting…that richmond give up it’s charter to the surrounding counties….that might be a feasible idea in another time or even years ago, but with the economy the way it is now, i dont see it happening…it’ll be a further waste of money or a way for them to further ‘misappropriate’ funds. while you can blame the school systems, the economy, the weather, cold french fries from mcdonalds, and bad haircuts, the fact is, there will always be people taking advantage of the system regardless of where you are at…richmond, henrico, chesterfield…it doesn’t matter, especially white collar crimes such as this
So do I understand correctly that if this was handled the way it was supposed to be, then low income families whose children performed well in school would’ve received the VISA gift cards? What’t that about? I came from a low-income family and am positive no one ever paid me (or my family) for academic performance.
When I criticized City Council and the Mayor for rushing to confirm the new Richmond CAO Bryon Marshall, one member of Council observed I was “predisposed to expect the worst from City Government”.
That predisposition is a learned response to the plethora of situations in the past 39 years of my residency when city government has made poor decisions and wasted or misappropriated tax revenue - and the story goes on and on. This is just the latest example.
Despite the obviously daunting effort that would be required, the best interests of all would be best served by Richmond surrendering its City Charter and its territory being divided among the surrounding jurisdictions.
I agree, there is no excuse for this happening as many double checks as they can have in place. Unfortunately, the Richmond Public Schools are poorly run, lots of dishonesty to hide a lot of incompetence which everyone wants to deny.
Should have had better controls and accountability here.. this is inexcusable in this day and age. There are many accounting controls that could be put into place that would prevent this type of fraud.
For this type of crime, I would rather the county require repayment plus cost of investigation and prosecution along with probation.. (why do we want to waste MORE taxpayer money taking care of her?).
10 years please!
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