Former Kentucky County Treasurer Indicted For Fraud and Identity Theft

WASHINGTON – The former Treasurer of Jackson County, Kentucky was indicted today for stealing over $160,000 from the Jackson County government and misusing the identities of two other Jackson County employees to facilitate her thefts.  Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan Jr. for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge Amy Hess of the FBI’s Louisville, Kentucky Field Division and Richard Sanders, Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, made the announcement. 

Beth N. Sallee, 37, of McKee, Kentucky, was charged in a 10-count indictment with four counts of wire fraud, four counts of theft from a program receiving federal funds, and two counts of aggravated identity theft.  A date for Sallee to appear in court has not yet been scheduled.  

The indictment alleges that Sallee misused her position to write a number of checks payable to herself without the approval of the Jackson County Fiscal Court.  Sallee allegedly deposited these checks into her own personal checking account or for cash.  Over time, those unauthorized checks totaled approximately $161,808.23.  To enable her scheme, Sallee allegedly forged the signatures of at least two other Jackson County employees on the checks, and later attempted to conceal her scheme by removing pages of Jackson County financial documents, obscuring page numbers with whiteout, and requesting the removal of check images from bank statements that were to be given to an auditor. 

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Kentucky State Police.  The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jessica C. Harvey of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew T. Boone of the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Any indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.