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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA woman who worked as an accounting specialist at WFYI Public Media from 2018 to 2020 and her co-conspirator have been sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $270,000 from the Indianapolis public television and radio broadcaster.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the sentences Tuesday.
Mindi B. Madison, 53, of Indianapolis, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in April, was also ordered to pay $270,876 in restitution by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker.
Madison’s co-conspirator, Alicia Wilson, 37, of Indianapolis also was sentenced to three years’ probation, with the first 15 months on home detention. She also was ordered to pay restitution.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Madison—who had access to WFYI’s accounting software and handled claims and invoices—worked with Wilson, who was not a WFYI employee, to embezzle funds from WFYI into their personal checking accounts.
Investigators said Madison presented at least 156 fake claims and invoices for payment in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In order to conceal the theft from WFYI and their banking institutions, Madison tendered WFYI checks to Wilson, and they agreed that Wilson would then deposit the checks into her bank accounts. Wilson then withdrew Madison’s portion in cash, and they split the illegal proceeds.
Madison and Wilson used the stolen funds for personal expenditures including rent, restaurants, groceries, fuel and utilities.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany J. Preston.
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What a terrible situation but thrilled they were caught & prosecuted, I am hoping my former Controller receives a similar punishment
I don’t understand the punishment, 3 years of probation for stealing money?? Oh, and they have to pay back the money which based on a Indy Star article not too long ago, the money rarely gets paid back. Obviously, they faced a wuss-ass judge who should be replaced, or we should defund judges, or become like California and turn the other cheek on crime.
Uh, Judge Barker has been a federal judge since 1994. And, there are federal sentencing guidelines that federal judges must follow.
I think jail time would have been appropriate. As for restitution, I imagine they’ll both be put on some kind of monthly payment plan that will never begin to equal what they stole. When my church’s business manager was found to have embezzled over $300K some thirty years ago, he paid back around $70/month, a piddling amount, and, died leaving the overwhelming amount of the debt unpaid. (At least he spent 18 months in jail–still a light sentence, in my view).
Probation is a joke in this case
Like most PBS (and CPB) affiliates, WFYI has abandoned merit-based hiring so it can meet the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity quotas being coerced onto institutions by our globalist billionaire overlords.
Presumptions among kind-hearted bigots seem to linger on the notion that, without hiring quotas, certain minorities will never advance to white-collar positions of prestige. This is, of course, an overtly racist line of reasoning, since it tacitly assumes that minorities are not intrinsically competent enough to advance to these jobs through any historic, merit-based means.
While there are plenty of people of all cultures and ethnicities who possess the smarts to advance in corporate America, you don’t need to have achieved Straight-As in calculus classes to be a good bookkeeper. I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt to have proficiency in math, but equally–if not more–important is simply demonstrating a code of ethics, which is just as big a part of merit-based hiring as those hard skills. Without that integrity, no amount training will make for a good accountant.
Corporations and ideologically compromised institutions like Corporation for Public Broadcasting will continue to face these problems as long as they continue to elevate identity or “historically marginalized groups” over merit. And, before too long, one of those Boeing-constructed Alaska/American/United Airlines planes will come crashing down due to an obvious oversight from either a pilot, air traffic control, or an airline mechanic. Ain’t the future rosy?
News Flash, Lauren: Embezzlers exist across the socio-economic and racial strata. Most are actually white (go back and read the articles about ones in Hamilton County). But hey, the facts don’t make for a good soap box upon which you can rant nonsensically and so, like Donald Trump, we come to realize you can’t help yourself.
Thanks Brent! You’re so smart. Exactly HOW does your fact–to which I would not dispute–somehow manage to refute my own statement: that allowing other identitarian factors supersede merit and integrity is a terrible idea?
It doesn’t.
Yet again, as racialists always ALWAYS do, you have to make it about melanin when it should only be about merit. And no, my proposal won’t mean a corrupt agency like WFYI would have to hire exclusively white men. But it may be hiring them in proportion to their prevalence in society as a whole. Heaven forfend.
Keep wallowing in your cesspit. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get a taste of cholera.
What does this case have to do with diversity? I mean, most serial killers in history have been white males, so what’s your take on that?
They both should have been sent to prison.