Connecticut Woman Charged With Embezzling $482K From Red Cross

Diane Williams, 53, of East Hartford, Connecticut was charged with embezzling more than $482,000 from the local American Red Cross chapter where she had served as the group's finance director.  According to authorities, over a period of at least four years, beginning in 2006 until July 2010, Williams used her position to pay herself extra salary.  Police investigators claim Williams admitted to taking the money to help pay for her daughter's college costs.  Nevertheless, she has pleaded not guilty to the charges.  According to the Hartford Courant: "Williams told police her bookkeeping was not reviewed and that she was able to get away with more than doubling her salary in 2007, 2008 and 2009, the year the chapter's directors agreed to cut their salaries to balance their chapter's budget.  Williams said her financial difficulties began in 2005 when she realized she could not afford to pay for her daughter's college costs."

Read the story here, here and here.

Note: this isn't the first time the Red Cross has been hit with a major embezzlement recently.  In February 2011, Deborah A. Leggio, former finance director for the Suffolk County chapter of the American Red Cross, was charged with embezzling nearly $275,000.  That case is pending.  See FraudTalk's posting on the story here.