Former Kentucky Treasurer Sentenced to Prison for ID Theft and Wire Fraud

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the former treasurer of Jackson County, Kentucky to 45 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, officials stated.

U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom sentenced Beth N. Sallee, 39, of McKee, Kentucky.

Sallee was also ordered to pay $161,808.23 in restitution for devising a multi-year scheme to defraud the Jackson County Fiscal Court of over $160,000 and for misusing the identity of a Jackson County employee to facilitate her theft, according to officials.   

Sallee pleaded guilty on Feb. 4, 2019, to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.  As part of her plea, Sallee admitted that beginning in 2013, she misused her position to write a number of checks, totaling approximately $161,808.23, payable to herself without the approval of the Jackson County Fiscal Court. 

Sallee proceeded to either deposit these checks into her personal checking account or exchange these checks for cash.  The unauthorized checks drew on various Jackson County Fiscal Court accounts, including the Department of Emergency Services grant, payroll and general fund accounts.

To enable her scheme, Sallee forged the signature of other Jackson County employees on unauthorized checks without their knowledge or permission. 

She later attempted to conceal her scheme by removing pages of Jackson County financial documents, obscuring page numbers with Wite-Out and requesting the deletion of check images from bank statements that were to be given to an auditor.