State Auditor Shad White issued the following statement.
Today State Auditor Shad White announced Special Agents from his office have arrested two suspects in Rankin County on separate embezzlement cases: Hope Bishop, the former Vice President of Human Resources at the Mississippi Lottery Corporation, and Brittney Phillips, a former clerk at the Rankin County Tax Collector’s Office.
Bishop is accused of giving herself unauthorized raises. The Lottery Commission staff discovered Bishop’s alleged embezzlement and reported it to the State Auditor’s office when they were improving lottery operations. The Commission has now put into place additional controls to prevent embezzlement in the future. Bishop was served a $187,738.85 demand at the time of her arrest.
Bishop had no access to the gaming side of lottery operations, so her alleged actions did not affect the integrity of lottery games.
Phillips is accused of embezzling cash from the Rankin County Tax Collector’s Office by not registering car tags and taking the cash payments. Tax Collector Caroline Gilbert turned the case over to the Auditor’s Office when she suspected that Phillips was potentially embezzling funds. Phillips was served a $36,583.47 demand at the time of her arrest.
“We’re grateful for the work of the Lottery Commission and Tax Collector Caroline Gilbert in helping to identify these suspects,” said Auditor White. “If you know of anyone potentially stealing taxpayer funds, please call us at 1-800-321-1275, and we’ll take it from there.”
Bishop faces up to 20 years and $25,000 in fines if convicted.
Phillips 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. District Attorney John “Bubba” Bramlett’s office will prosecute the case.
An insurance policy covers Bishop’s employment at the Mississippi Lottery Corporation. A $50,000 surety bond covers Phillips’ employment at the Rankin County Tax Collector’s Office. Surety bonds are similar to insurance designed to protect taxpayers from corruption. Both suspects 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.
26 comments:
What is the big deal, it is only$187,000.00 +. Just ask her to repay it.
$225k...waiting on the low-hanging fruit crowd
Low hanging fruit comments in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
Rankin County is beyond doomed. Bailey, take note.
As a business owner I have dealt with embezzlement in Rankin county.
I predict very little money if any, will be paid back and no jail time. Rankin is weak on embezzlers.
Funny, Congress votes themselves raises all the time! I guess the HR admin should’ve gotten the entire lottery company to vote for raises too so it would be democratic!
1:27 unfortunately the “low hanging fruit”, as you call it, is the truth. Ask your boy why he is giving the LeFlore County Supervisors a pass.
a bad gamble-
So the Auditor’s office does have arrest powers? Interesting.
Both of these cases were reported to the State Auditor's Office by the agencies themselves. Neither of these cases were discovered by Shad's office directly, so yes, low-hanging fruit is appropriate for both of these cases. Shad needs to stop patting himself on the back for simply doing his job.
What ever happened to all the DMR restitution? Bill Walker's DMR restitution in particular?
@1:27 as I recall, "my boy" has already issued demand letters to the Leflore supervisors.
Perhaps, you should form a search party and go look for the AG, who's been MIA for 4 years save a few photo-op trips to DC.
Low hanging guy here -
Shad didn't do any work on this one. Served up on a platter. Nice job lottery corp and rankin tax collector.
Once again, the terrorist organization known as Rankin County guvment shows its evil head
Someone above the VP of HR has to approved her payroll, that person should be held accountable too. Either he/she knew about it or should have known about it.
Their pictures are all over the local news stations websites. someone beat both of them with the ugly stick.
I personally know of a huge embezzlement situation by an employee of a business and nothing was done and the offender isn’t the least but sorry, but they did get fired from their next job once the new employer found out.
"So the Auditor’s office does have arrest powers? Interesting. "
Yes - that's news to me as well.........
@2:15 and @4:39, that arrest power scares the Hell out of me. No way should an auditor's office have arrest powers.
@2:15, yes they do. And yes, they have been corrupt in more ways than one. Let’s go back several years when State Auditors Investigator was found guilty of corruption. The first officers name was Karey McDonald. the second one was Scotty Turner and he was a “sooped up” kind of guy who was notorious for making threats. Anyone else know about these two they know would fit real well with the Goon Squad. 6:01, you are correct. As a matter of fact I know of one other investigator who worked for the Auditors Office who bragged about his arrests and his manner of performing them and he currently lives in Hazlehurst. I thought you people knew these things. Obviously you all don’t. And obviously they can get away with whatever they want because the first two I mentioned didn’t have to serve time but they sure broke the law. They planted evidence.
"So the Auditor’s office does have arrest powers? Interesting. "
Yes - that's news to me as well.........
.........................
If you two had walking around sense and paid only minimum attention, you would know this. Every news release you read clearly states 'was arrested by investigators from the Auditor's office and served with a demand letter'.
For God's sakes...Pay fucking attention!
And it's a damned good thing these special agents have arrest powers. Imagine how many would be arrested if this were left to our giggling Attorney General.
As a Lottery Corporation board member, did Gerard vote to hire the HR embezzler?
Meanwhile: 'Read my article tomorrow. I'm the smartest guy in the room'.
Personally speaking, she’s incompetent.
1:37 Sounds like you have had the pleasure of dealing with ADA Mary J Fruitbasket and the minion squad.
Sounds like this chick and that Walker person from the Laurelwood embezzlement deal might be buddies. This is all too familiar.
@4:01pm -
"I personally know of a huge embezzlement situation by an employee of a business and nothing was done and the offender isn’t the least but sorry, but they did get fired from their next job once the new employer found out."
C'mon, son, not even a bit sorry?
Embezzlement is LEGAL in Rankin County unless it involves a municipality, school or anything publicly funded. Y'all are free to steal from the business owners though. It really is stankin over there. Y'all go for it, there are no consequences.
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