PASCO, Wash. — A sudden announcement from the Franklin County Board of Commissioners Thursday. Nine county employees are on administrative leave, and a criminal investigation is underway.
Pasco police started an internal fraud investigation at the request of the state attorney general’s office. Police locked down the public works office and executed a search warrant to find new information. And earlier today we learned one person is already under arrest.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
A letter was sent to Franklin County employees this morning details behavior which has given the county a bit of a black eye.
Nine employees, the majority of them working with the county public works department are being investigated for theft of county funds.
“My sense is this very well may have been an ongoing activity for a long period of time. We’ll let the results of the investigation being that to hear and tell us whether or not my instincts are true in that regard,” explains Franklin County Commissioner Brad Peck.
Calls to the state attorney generals office or the county could not confirm how much money may have been stolen. What’s also not clear is how the activity has been going on.
What is known is about two weeks ago, the fraud was discovered in an internal audit.
One of the nine people under investigation is 64 year old Dennis Huston of Pasco. He was arrested Thursday afternoon for first degree theft, money laundering, and possession of controlled substances.
The other eight are on paid leave, but this may spread further than just public works, “there are people outside of public works, but again the emphasis here is on having people out of work place. So investigations can be done in an unimpeded fashion,” adds Peck.
Because the investigation could spread, prosecutor Shawn Sant says this will take time, “this could take days, it could take weeks. These type of cases do require some time and we want to make sure that we get it right.”
Officials say even more people may be under investigation. They add it could take weeks or even months to find out the full extent of what happened.
