FDLE finishes investigation of Nassau County Clerk's Office

The Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement was conducting an investigation of the Nassau County(small county due north of Jacksonville) and it's County Clerk's office where $1 million dollars was missing and or stolen. A blogged about this in an earlier post.

The Florida Times Union reported

A former supervisor in the Nassau County Clerk's office embezzled more than $1 million over eight years, quietly stuffing her purse with cash used to pay for gambling trips to Las Vegas and handouts to needy friends, a state investigation revealed Thursday.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators concluded that Jessica Julia Mixon, 56, acted alone and meticulously covered her tracks by forging bank slips to cover for the missing funds.

Shortly after being confronted by FDLE investigators three months ago, she committed suicide.

Mixon took advantage of lax oversight and the considerable trust of her colleagues and bosses, County Clerk John Crawford said.

"She held the keys to the kingdom by herself," he said.

Mixon "freely and readily" admitted to the embezzlement scheme in an interview with FDLE agents in April, according to investigative files obtained Thursday by the Times-Union.

Mixon never offered an explanation. When investigators asked what she did with the stolen money, she giggled and said "I'd spend it." She told them there was no money left.

Later, investigators discovered that Mixon took numerous gambling junkets to Las Vegas where she played the slot machines. She was a "comped guest," meaning she received free lodging and meals at The Excalibur Hotel and Casino. She also claimed to have given unspecified sums to friends and acquaintances.

The Times-Union also reported as I said in my earlier post, that Ms. Mixon commited suicide shortly after her interview by FDLE. I accept this and the results of the FDLE investigation.

There are still troubling questions. How does one steal $1 million in public money? What was her supervisors doing? Did they fail in their jobs? I certainly seem to think so.

Here's something else in the same article.

The scheme eluded auditors from the firm of Farmand, Farmand and Farmand, which has been responsible for auditing the clerk's accounts for the past decade. During the past three years alone, the firm has received more than $100,000 for its services to the clerk's office.

Asked whether the firm could be a target of any civil action, Crawford said: "On advice of counsel, I cannot discuss that."

Anwar B. Farmand, the firm's president, said he did not know the details of the investigation but said the audits were thorough.

"An audit is not to detect fraud," Farmand said. "If you can circumvent control, it's very hard to find fraud."

That's a load of bullshit Mr. Farmand. Your firm either didn't investigate properly or didn't want to ask hard questions. I just finished 'Final Accounting' about the Arthur Andersen debacle. Auditors are afraid to confront clients because their firm can lose business. Either that or you just failed to do your work.

I hope the FDLE continues to follow up. This should never happen again but it certainly almost will.