State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement.
Today State Auditor Shad White announced special agents from his office have arrested Melissa Upchurch. Upchurch is the former District Secretary for the Holmes County Water and Soil Conservation District. She is charged with embezzlement.
Upchurch is accused of issuing and then depositing district checks into her own bank account from June 2020 to September 2022. Upchurch was served with a $48,160.08 demand at the time of her surrender. The demand letter includes interest and investigative costs.
“I’m incredibly proud of the team at the State Auditor’s office. They have recovered more money in the last four years than any other four-year period in our state’s history,” said Auditor White. “This case adds another log to the fire that we’ve been building.”
Upchurch faces 20 years and $25,000 in fines if convicted on all counts. All persons arrested by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
District Attorney Akillie Oliver’s office will prosecute the case.
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.
32 comments:
is it just me or does it look like she smokes a lot of meth?
Alcohol, Meth, gambling??
This organization creates absolutely nothing for the betterment of Holmes county, and then she steals even more money. That is the Mississippi delta mind set.
Props to Shad, impressive string of wins. Makes me wonder what the previous auditors did.
She didnt spend it on facelifts.
Good for Shad, however he continues to "pick the low hanging fruit" while many elected officials doing much worse than this get a pass.
I doubt that she is a meth-head.
Steal $48K and fined only $24K plus time. Shouldn’t the fine at least cover the $48K plus interest? Asking for a friend!
12:42 - So name some names. Who does he need to go after and why? Does he need to start at the top and work his way down one at a time? Obviously you don't think he has more than one investigation going on at a time.
Shad looooves busting old ladies but refuses to go after Phil, Canton, Hinds or Jackson. So odd
If a person goes by what the people who Shad is catching look like then most likely sharp dressed guys like Pheel have nothing to worry about!
1:07. Can you read? Did you even READ the post?
There's a lotto menthol coursing through those veins. Bless her heart.
I know this was a gutsy move, but thank you Shad!
You stand for freedom and put your life on the line on a daily basis!
1:27 Canton? I believe 4 people there have been charged with crimes including 2-3 elected officials and an engineer who was charged with paying them bribes.
Damn Crystal!
@1:07 the judgement is the amount she stole. Fine is time plus $25,000 fine.
"is it just me or does it look like she smokes a lot of meth?" Betting if she get it between her lips she'll drag on it.
1:27 So should Shad not bust someone who is stealing regardless of their age? How do you know they aren’t investigating other crimes as another commenter suggested? I personally don’t like “Pheel” and if he committed a crime then he should be convicted. I just honestly am sick of hearing “what about Pheel”. It is getting old.
If Pheel has committed a crime he should be indicted.
Yet, Mississippi.
Where investigations into important and well connected folk get bungled on the regular.
For all you commenting she is an old woman she is in her late 50’s. I know her.
Feds are investigating the DHS scandal too.
She appears to have had a hard life. But with big eyes, she may have been nice looking in twenties.
Built in accounting/bookkeeping techniques, like two signatures on each check, can prevent embezzling.
more low hanging fruit. go after the real criminals, Shad. I bet you're puppet masters won't let you do that, though.
Of course, she can always pick up a little extra money modeling for “Playboy Magazine”.
Holmes County is the poorest in the State. Shad, you have an empty ballsack if you don’t go after guvner feel. And, the sheriff over there is the biggest crook. Him and nephews steal everybody’s shit and they don’t even start an investigation. Holmes County is simply holding the earth together. Leave that lady alone.
Madison county tax collector is going to skate away after she blames the $600k discrepancies on a prior administrator. She will also fire a few employees an attempt to show she had nothing to do with it.
The prior administrator is running for tax collector.
Statement by Auditor's office doesn't tell the story.
Demand is $48,160.08 Includes interest and investigation cost.
BREAK THAT TOTAL DOWN.
If he's overvaluing his investigation, and the juice is 18%, then this woman may have stolen $5000.
And what did she steal? Stamps? Gas? Cash payments?
All criminals are criminals. But is this the most Shad can do as auditor?
If there's no written quid pro quo then they gots to let feel go!
Mr. Polite will prosecute all in the DHS scandal, he grew up a poor kid in NO he doesn’t like people who stole from the poor. He leaves no stone unturned.
The DHS scandal is now in the hands of the feds and has been for at least a year. So quit bitching about it. It's not the job of the State Auditor to prosecute.
I swear I think Shad waits until these posts are a few days old then post a message so he can get the last word in.
I wish Shad would some how personally sentence Pheel to death, just to shut everyone up.
I've always been a fan of due process but at this point, I am ok with just executing Pheel and Favre with no trial so the harpys will maybe "allow" officials to address ANY other wrong in the state.
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