FORT GAY, W.Va.—- West Virginia Auditor JB McCuskey says that the embezzlement scheme involving two Fort Gay city officials could have been avoided if the auditor’s office had more authority.
Mayor Joetta Hatfield, 68, and city Recorder/Treasurer Sheila Bowen allegedly used their positions in order to redirect city funds into their own pocket. Investigators say they used checks with the city’s name on it to write themselves checks. Hatfield had 107 checks written out to her for $96,420.20 and Bowen has 103 checks written out to her for $94,450.14.
“And all of these things, unfortunately could have been prevented,” McCuskey said on Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval Tuesday. “We’ve had a piece of legislation that we have put forth every single year since I’ve been the auditor that enables for municipal dissolution. It’s a bill that has passed the house 100 to nothing every time, but it would have given us the authority to do these types of audits if they refused to sign the contract.”
Both of the women are also accused of using the water fund account to pay their personal bills; Bowen used it 15 different times to pay for her electrical bill and Hatfield used the account 29 different times to pay her cable bill. She is also accused of using other city funds to pay her AEP bill.
McCuskey said that Fort Gay actually left the P-card or purchasing card program a long time ago, in which they got a bank to issue them their own P-card, which he believes was one reason that the scheme fell through the cracks within the auditor’s office.
“And thus, all of these transactions fell outside of all our monitoring,” McCuskey said. “But we were able to initiate an investigation and really dig down into this quickly and hopefully we will come to a resolution to this problem sooner rather than later.”
And while the state auditor’s office and West Virginia State Police were able to start that investigation earlier this year, McCuskey says the reason that it went on for five years was because Bowen was serving as both the recorder and the treasurer, which he says shouldn’t happen.
“So, the scheme works because the person who is supposed to be reporting to the town council is the recorder and the person who is supposed to be making sure that no bad checks written is the treasurer,” McCuskey said. “And so, when that is the same person, and that person has an alleged criminal intent then you can fall into this situation.”
Both women have been charged with fraudulent schemes, embezzlement, falsifying accounts, and money laundering.