Monday, February 12, 2024

Honor Society Advisor not so Honorable

 State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement. 

Today State Auditor Shad White announced Special Agents from his office have arrested Robin Lowe. Lowe was the former advisor for the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) chapter, which is a national honor society at the Itawamba Community College. She is charged with embezzlement.

Lowe is accused of converting public funds meant to benefit the PTK chapter for her own personal use. Lowe was the advisor for the honor society from 2008 to May of 2023. Lowe was served with a $36,915.30 demand letter at the time of her arrest.

“We are dedicated to making sure all taxpayer dollars—but especially dollars meant to benefit students—are spent appropriately and not stolen,” said State Auditor Shad White.

Lowe faces up to 20 years and $5,000 in fines if convicted. All persons arrested by the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

An insurance policy covers Lowe’s employment at Itawamba Community College. Lowe will remain liable for the full 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 calling 1-(800)-321-1275 during normal business hours.



 

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phi Theta Kappa is a farce anyway. It's literally the scholastic version of the better business bureau or Chamber of Commerce. The only people that think this organization is of any value are it's members. I was a complete dumbass in college and got asked to be a member.

Anonymous said...

Guilty, on all counts.

Anonymous said...

Economic anxiety is getting out of hand.

Anonymous said...

All taxpayers dollars Shad? I will believe you are serious when you start taking down members of the Rankin County elected officials. The police chief in Pearl resigned to begin collecting his PERS benefits. How much more are his benefits when taking the extra money for a no show no work job? The Sheriff getting paid extra to manage the emergency operations shelter. It’s a long list, get started soon before you decide to run for another office.
My bet is Shad will not go anywhere close to Rankin County, instead he will keep picking off the low hanging fruit that has no political value. Remember this, all of the who complain about the lack of accountability in government. Keep electing the same people and we will never get improved results.

Anonymous said...

Who says there is no honor among thieves?

Anonymous said...

A broken down demand letter is a bunch of BS fees attached. She probably did nothing but sloppy accounting.

Anonymous said...

4:30, the reason is that Shad has a dollar cap. Anything over $50K is above his abilities. Those people hire smart attorneys and he can't con them into guilty pleas like he can these small dollar folk. Low hanging fruit.....

Anonymous said...

Word is that her father (or maybe her step-father) is a board member at ICC. Not sure how she would be employed by ICC if he's on the board. Seems like a conflict of interest or nepotism.

Anonymous said...

"Why are you arresting me? Everybody is stealing public funds. It's what we do in Mississippi."

Anonymous said...

Anyone serving time for the biggest fraud in Mississippi’s history (MDHS fiasco). It’s been over two years and not a word! John Davis and Nancy New where are you?

Anonymous said...

5:41, you ever heard of Hinds CC?

Anonymous said...

"Low hanging fruit" comment in 3, 2, 1...

Anonymous said...

So she stole about $15,000 from the organization?

Anonymous said...

Per usual, Lil' Chad avoids the major players and goes after a collegiate honor society club.

Anonymous said...

Post the demand letter!!!!

I bet she cannot account for $4000 and they cannot directly prove she stole it.

Anonymous said...

She was a 15-year employee.

This could have been $1500 worth of mileage reimbursement discrepancies.

Shad's Gestapo investigates for a year, then hits her with investigative costs, plus 18% interest over the 15 years of her employment.

Anonymous said...

@5:41pm

"Word is that her father (or maybe her step-father) is a board member at ICC. Not sure how she would be employed by ICC if he's on the board. Seems like a conflict of interest or nepotism."

You gotta be shittin' me.

Do you know how many people are employed with some degree of familial connection in Mississippi? Nepotism is in all the government policy manuals, but it is openly ignored. You're not born and bred in Mississippi, you're born and inbred.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Shad. MOST of us do appreciate your collection of every penny stolen from us.

Anonymous said...

Is Phi Theta Kappa a public state entity or a private organization? Is it an actual part of the college? Would Shad come investigate if one of my employees stole from my office?

Anonymous said...

@7:07 while it is nice that Shad has "caught" this lady, MOST of us would prefer he spend his time on bigger fish.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile the big fish keep swimming around without a care in the world.

Anonymous said...

Phi Theta Kappa is actually the national junior college honor society. They have chapters all over the US and even a few foreign countries. Phi Theta Kappa was founded in Canton, MS. Their headquarters was just northeast of the Canton Square. They later moved briefly to the corner of I-55 and Briarwood (to the triangular building that was just torn down and discussed on this blog) while they were building their new building near Ridgewood Road in Jackson. They've been in the current building probably 35 years now.

Anonymous said...

Phi Theta Kappa has more than 3.5 million members, in almost 1300 chapters, in 10 different countries. They are headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

Nepotism? Taking a snapshot of our Junior Colleges over the past fifty years, most every employee was related to two or more other employees. Take Holmes, for example, where, thirty years ago, the Finance Manager had free housing, his wife was his secretary, he had four job titles at one time and most all of the admin staff had relatives on payroll. And the president there got fired for using the school credit card to put tires on his vehicles.

Anonymous said...

There DOES seem to be a pattern: choose someone whose appearance and name will not elicit sympathy from the public (perhaps there's an element of self-hate present in the development of this expertise), make sure the individual does not have a viable support network, make too complicated a case for media to bother with reporting the salient facts of the story, then apply a jaundiced eye (and calculator).

Commenters' "low-hanging fruit" remarks, about previous stories, did not impress me. Now, I'm rethinking...

Anonymous said...

Would someone tell me why my banker business partner can get away with stealing 700,000 from our business and nobody cares!!! This woman embezzles a few thousand and she goes to jail!!

Anonymous said...

@ 6:52 - Because your banker and your business are not in the public sector. The State Auditor doesn't audit or investigate private sector.

Anonymous said...

6:52 - 42 thousand with the possibility of 20 locked up is not exactly low-hanging.

You people no doubt bitch about MHP pulling over people who exceed the speed limit by 12 when they ought to be targeting those exceeding it by 20.


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