Two Wilson Elementary School District Employees Indicted For Theft, Fraud, Forgery

justice money

According to the Arizona Auditor General, Wilson Elementary School District officials “took appropriate action by reporting to us fraud allegations of financial misconduct by former budget accounting specialists Ryan Mariano and April Childs.”

The Auditor General’s investigation found that from August 2018 through March 2019, Mariano may have embezzled $27,582, and in January 2020, Childs may have embezzled $5,000 when they issued themselves unauthorized District checks with forged signatures.

The Auditor General submitted their investigation to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which on July 11, 2022, presented evidence to the State Grand Jury.

The State Grand Jury indicted Mariano and Childs each on 5 felony counts related to theft, fraudulent schemes, and forgery. Mariano was also indicted on 1 felony count of misuse of public money.

Auditor General Findings:

Ryan Mariano:

From August 2018 through March 2019, Mr. Mariano allegedly issued himself 15 unauthorized clearing account checks totaling $27,582 with false check memo sections and forged signatures, falsifying District accounting software to conceal his actions. These checks ranged from $600 to $6,886 and included the forged signature of 1 of the 2 authorized signers. The checks also included false memo section purposes such as “coaching” or “stipend” even though Mr. Mariano was not authorized to receive payments for those purposes, and those types of payments are not allowed to be issued through the clearing account. The District’s clearing account is only authorized to safeguard and accumulate revenues until remitted to the Maricopa County Treasurer. Moreover, after printing the checks payable to himself, Mr. Mariano allegedly changed the checks’ payee in the District’s accounting software from his name to “Maricopa County Treasurer” or “Treasurer of Maricopa County,” making it falsely appear as if the checks were issued for authorized purposes. These checks were deposited in Mr. Mariano’s personal checking accounts and primarily used to cover negative balances and pay for personal expenses such as rent, utilities, travel, restaurant, and legal costs.

April Childs:

Prior to her December 2019 termination, Ms. Childs allegedly removed 14 blank checks from the clearing account check stock and later issued 3 checks payable to herself totaling $5,000 that were deposited in her personal checking account in January 2020. After the District discovered these 3 unauthorized checks issued to Ms. Childs, they determined an additional 11 blank checks were missing from the clearing account check stock and requested the credit union to stop payment on those checks. Accordingly, those 11 checks were not able to be negotiated or otherwise processed. Similar to Mr. Mariano’s scheme, these 3 checks listed a forged signature of the same authorized signer, and 1 included a false memo section purpose of “stipend” that Ms. Childs was not authorized to receive. These checks were primarily used to cover Ms. Childs’ negative checking account balances and to pay for cash withdrawals.

District officials:

District officials had historically failed to implement adequate internal controls over the clearing account, and although officials took prompt action after discovering Mr. Mariano’s alleged financial misconduct, their actions were not enough to prevent Ms. Childs from later perpetrating similar alleged misconduct. Specifically, Mr. Mariano and Ms. Childs had custody of the clearing account check stock, prepared checks, recorded check information in the District’s accounting software, and reconciled software reports to the checking account statements. Moreover, supervisors performed only cursory reviews of reconciliations and did not review canceled checks or supporting documentation to ensure accuracy or appropriateness of clearing account transactions. Additionally, when District officials removed Ms. Childs’ access to the clearing account blank check stock, they failed to ensure all checks were numerically accounted for, and as a result, the District failed to detect that Ms. Childs removed blank checks.

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