State Auditor Announces Indictment of Former Nanih Waiya School Employee

CONTACT: Laney Grantham or Brett Kittredge
DATE: April 8, 2013

(Jackson, Miss.) – State Auditor Stacey Pickering announced today that former Nanih Waiya School employee, Lori Young, surrendered herself to the Winston County Sheriff’s Office and to agents with the State Auditor’s Office on Friday, April 6. Young was indicted on one count of embezzlement by the Winston County Grand Jury.

Young embezzled $15,833.40. She was served a demand for $28,917.15 which included investigative costs, interest, and other costs of recovery. Young embezzled funds from the Nanih Waiya Attendance Center, part of the Louisville Municipal School District, by not depositing all of the funds that had been given to her by teachers and club sponsors and altering cash sheet records to cover the stolen cash.

“This is one of many cases our office has worked in the past year involving embezzlement at a local school district,” said State Auditor Stacey Pickering. “Taking funds intended for our students will not be tolerated, and employees like Ms. Young will be held accountable for their actions when they violate the public trust and misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

Young, 36, served as the Nanih Waiya School Secretary from January 2006 to March 2010.

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Elected as Mississippi’s 41st State Auditor in 2007, Stacey Pickering was re-elected as State Auditor in 2011 receiving over 75 percent of the vote in the November General Election. Since 2008, Pickering has recovered more than $9 million in embezzled, misspent or misappropriated funds. He is a seventh generation Mississippian from Jones County. Auditor Pickering currently serves on the Domestic Working Group for the Office of the Comptroller General of the United States. He also serves on the Financial Management and Intergovernmental Affairs and Performance Audit Committees for the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers and is a member of the National State Auditors Association. Throughout his political career, Pickering has made tremendous strides in creating more accountability and transparency in government and continues to promote fiscal responsibility and the need for more efficiency and productivity in government. For more information on Stacey Pickering, visit: http://www.osa.ms.gov/about_stacey.html