Former West Virginia Sheriff's Office Employee Pleads Guilty in $3M Fraud Scheme
Lisa Lee French, 48, admitted to a decade-long fraud and embezzlement scheme involving over 700 fraudulent transactions at the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office.
Berkeley County Sheriff's Office Employee Admits to $3 Million Embezzlement
A former employee of the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office in West Virginia has pleaded guilty to a fraud and embezzlement scheme totalling nearly $3 million, federal prosecutors announced, according to wchstv.com.
Lisa Lee French, 48, of Martinsburg admitted to her role in a scheme that ran for more than a decade, between 2007 and October 2024, resulting in hundreds of fraudulent transactions. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of West Virginia detailed the charges in a news release.
French conspired to steal cash payments collected by the sheriff's office and manipulate conservatorship and estate accounts overseen by the same office, prosecutors said. Her methods included issuing fraudulent checks, forging signatures, misusing a sheriff's signature stamp, and diverting funds for her personal benefit.
Court documents show the scheme involved more than 700 fraudulent transactions, over 550 of which were forged checks, tied to at least 59 conservator bank accounts. The total fraud amounted to nearly $3 million.
As part of her guilty plea, French agreed to pay $2,737,932 in restitution to identified victims, including Berkeley County taxpayers, individuals under conservatorship, and the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office itself.
A second defendant in the case, Barbara Gail Gooden, is awaiting trial, currently scheduled for 23 March 2027.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)