ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Crystal Stovall signed over all unpaid wages, leave and retirement to make restitution.
The apparent theft of more than $100,000 from the state Department of Treasury exposed security lapses in the agency's unclaimed property division, the state auditor of public accounts said Thursday.
Crystal Stovall, 35, a former senior accountant, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Richmond Circuit Court to stealing $17,000 held by the division. She was given a five-year suspended sentence.
The conviction resulted from an investigation by the state police and the state auditor of public accounts, Walter Kucharski.
Kucharski said in a report that his auditors were unable to account for $106,297 of $130,546 in unclaimed cash held by the division.
As a section supervisor in the division, Stovall had quick and easy access to the money and repeatedly circumvented division policy requiring two people in a basement vault and fourth-floor storage room where unclaimed cash was held, Kucharski said.
Kucharski ``identified on 20 separate occasions that [Stovall] accessed both the building and the fourth floor storage room during the weekend when no other Division employee had accessed the building.''
Since the thefts were discovered in August, the unclaimed property division has:
Required that the keys to the storage room and the basement vault be kept by an independent Treasury employee who does not have access to either storage area.
Limited security card access to both storage areas to Monday through Friday working hours.
Changed the lock and key on the storage room to a special bank-style key that cannot be duplicated.
Established a log for signing out the key to the storage room.
State Treasurer Susan Dewey said Thursday she believed the division had good internal controls before the theft. ``But when you have a supervisor in charge of that section, she controls what goes on,'' she said.
Stovall, of Richmond, admitted taking an unspecified amount of money, Dewey said. She signed over all unpaid wages, leave and retirement to make restitution of the $17,000, said Don Harrison, a spokesman for Attorney General James Gilmore.
As far as recovering the remaining $89,000, ``there is nothing we can do,'' Dewey said.
Dewey notified the state police and Kucharski in September of possible fraud in the unclaimed property division. Stovall was fired Oct. 4, Dewey said.
The division holds unclaimed or abandoned property when the owner cannot be located or determined.
Financial institutions, courts, hospitals, fiduciaries, state and local police departments and insurance companies send unclaimed property to the state. The property includes cash, securities, checks, money orders and physical property.
The unclaimed money, stolen between November 1995 and last October, was sent to the division by police departments in Richmond, Williamsburg and Chesterfield and Henrico counties. Police had recovered the money in various investigations.
Other holders of unclaimed cash normally deposit the cash and submit a check to the treasurer, Kucharski said.
The director of unclaimed property has since notified the four police departments that cash will no longer be accepted.
In the event cash is found in unclaimed property received by the division, the funds will be deposited the next working day.
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