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An Investigation by the State Comptroller’s Office has revealed that a former accountant of Volunteer Energy stole nearly $1 million.
The investigation led a Meigs County grand jury to indict Jason Kittle this month on a charge of theft over $250,000.
“This is one of the largest cases of theft that we have investigated,” Comptroller Justin P. Wilson said. “However, the weaknesses that allowed this activity to occur are not unusual. Financial responsibilities must be separated between multiple individuals, so that one person isn’t recording financial information and reconciling bank statements without oversight.”
Wilson said investigators determined that Kittle stole at least $994,981 between June 2011 and December 2017.
According to the State Comptroller’s report, Kittle concealed his misappropriations by recording fraudulent transactions in VEC’s accounting system as online payment fees, returns, or similar transactions. Kittle also managed and reconciled the statement’s of the VEC bank account, which allowed the theft to remain undetected for year.
VEC terminated Kittle’s employment on January 2, 2018.
