State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement.
Today State Auditor Shad White announced special agents from his office have arrested Undare Kidd and Trafonda Kidd. Both have been indicted for conspiracy and fraud by a local grand jury. A $49,653.52 demand letter was presented to both individuals upon arrest.
The Kidds allegedly submitted a false invoice for services not actually provided to Hinds County taxpayers. These arrests come after Toni Johnson, Sudie Jones-Teague, and Cedric Cornelius were each arrested for fraud, embezzlement, and bribery earlier this year.
A portion of the money allegedly obtained by the Kidds came from $1.9 million in grants awarded to Hinds County by the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)—a nonprofit organization funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. According to the Wall Street Journal, this organization gave over $350 million to election offices across the country during the 2020 election season.
“This case shows, once again, that there was allegedly fraudulent spending on the 2020 election in Hinds County. We will continue to work alongside prosecutors to ensure all our 2020 election spending cases are brought to a successful conclusion,” said Auditor White. “I am thankful to the investigators and prosecutors for their hard work.”
If convicted, the defendants face many years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. All persons arrested by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The case will be prosecuted by the office of Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens.
No surety bond covers either of the defendants or their alleged crimes. Surety bonds are similar to insurance designed to protect taxpayers from corruption. Both defendants will remain liable for the total amount of the demand in addition to criminal proceedings.
Suspected fraud can be reported to the Auditor’s office online at any time by clicking the red button at www.osa.ms.gov or via telephone during normal business hours at 1-(800)-321-1275.
13 comments:
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. Shady AF
If I were Leon Seals...............
Any relation to Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd?
4:27 : Odds are pretty good.
Toni Johnson and David Archie were both put on the supervisor ballet by the professional criminal element in the Democratic Party. Interestingly Toni was supported by Bennie, but came in third and then re-ran for election commission. Hinds County did this to themselves, black, white or otherwise.
Sentence them to house arrest, and make them live off their own funds.
@5:06 - somewhere, an aide is reading your comment to Phil Bryant and he is laughing at your gullibility. Keep drinking that kool aid.
I wonder jsut how big this problem is nationwide. Or Maybe just Miss is crooked but somehow I believe if they checked they would find this in every state Zuck sent money
Public School graduates? People just don't seem to learn at all.
5:06 : Well yeah but Toni and her peeps are the small fish in this big pond. Zucker the suckers money isn't the only free money Hinds County received either. Judging by some of the brand new 1000 dollar suits , new cars and eating habits it will be easy to root out the theft. Brand new zero turns are not cheap .
9:47 am, maybe a lot of people do not know what the money was really for. It takes money to buy an election.
Lol, the lack of comments here kinda makes me think things.
Ironically, by diverting Zuck Bucks injected into the system for tilting elections, these folks were performing a public service. But alas what they did was wrong, if they did what is alleged.
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