Nebraska auditor slams village’s ‘slipshod accounting,’ says clerk stole thousands

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The state auditor on Tuesday accused a former village clerk of embezzling thousands of dollars from a town in northeast Nebraska.

Jamie Muhs cooked the books of the Village of Carroll to falsely show that she had paid her $2,668 in utility bills to the village, according to State Auditor Mike Foley.

And the cash payments of other village utility customers were never deposited, officials allege.

In a scathing press release, State Auditor Mike Foley said the amount of money lost can’t be determined because of the village’s “slipshod accounting practices.”

Carroll is a village of about 200 people in Wayne County.

Over a 32-month period, Muhs did not make any of the cash deposits that she was supposed to, the audit found.

She was also reimbursed almost $9,000 from the village board for office supplies, but the auditor said there is no evidence that she ever bought the supplies.

“The Village Board apparently was asleep at the switch when they rubber-stamped approval of the monthly payments for 32 consecutive months with zero evidence of the purchases ever having been made,” Foley said.

He said the case is now in the hands of the Wayne County attorney, the Nebraska attorney general and the Nebraska State Patrol.