Largest Theft in 15 Years; WA Employee Charged with $878K Fraud

Shawn Garrett July 1, 2024

KIRO 7 News reported about a Washington state employee misappropriated nearly $900,000 through fraudulent credit card purchases, according to a report released by the Office of the Washington State Auditor. The case marks the largest internal misappropriation in a state agency in at least 15 years. The report revealed that $878,115 was misappropriated at the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) between 2019 and 2023. The State Auditor’s Office developed a new tool to identify exponential growth patterns and scan large sets of state purchase card transactions and a recent report highlighted a suspicious credit card belonging to OAH, which auditors then reviewed.  It turned out to be registered under the name of a management analyst in OAH’s fiscal department who was allowed to make charges through four different business names they had created, in addition to making direct personal purchases with the cards.  Additionally, no one in the agency independently reviewed the analyst’s monthly credit card charges or payments.  OAH no longer employs the analyst, and the report will be forwarded to the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for further action.