Former employee pleads guilty to fraud in theft of $444,000 from Kentucky cabinet
A former employee has admitted stealing more than $444,000 from a Kentucky agency.
Brittany Joyce May pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud and one charge of aggravated identity theft in federal court on Aug. 8, according to the court record.
May, 35, of Frankfort, worked at the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services between August 2018 and May 2023. She was an administrative specialist.
Her duties included receiving contracts from people who were eligible for payments from the state through foster-care and adoption programs and initiating payments to their bank accounts or debit cards, according to her plea agreement.
In cases in which clients didn’t submit the necessary paperwork to get a payment, or were no longer eligible for payments, May sent the money that would have gone to them to bank accounts she controlled, according to the plea agreement.
May submitted fake invoices in some cases and threw away mail to hide the thefts.
May used the names and/or Social Security numbers of 45 clients and initiated more than 540 wire transfers in carrying out the scheme, according to her plea.
Her plea cited one example in which she used the name, date of birth and Social Security number of a client to open a bank account, then had the debit card for the account sent to her home.
Between July 2021 and May 2023, she misappropriated $444,663. She will owe that much in restitution to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
A grand jury indicted May on five charges of wire fraud and three of identity theft. Some charges will be dropped as part of her plea.
May faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and two years on the identity theft charge.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove scheduled sentencing for November.
