State audits uncovered more than $1.8 million in theft and fraud in 2023 and led to nearly three dozen criminal charges.
In a year-end report, the Arizona Auditor General outlined a series of criminal acts that the agency’s investigators discovered during routine audits, including one state worker who allegedly siphoned more than $1.7 million from an education program.
That employee, Tyler Grandil, was the executive secretary who oversaw the Future Farmers of America program for the Arizona Department of Education. He is accused of depositing $1.7 million intended for FFA programs at Arizona schools into a secret checking account and altering invoices to hide his tracks.
Auditors reported that he used much of the money to pay for FFA program expenses that he put on private credit cards, but they also determined that he used the account to issue almost $41,000 worth of checks to pay himself and family members.
Grandil was charged in June 2023 with fraud and computer tampering.
FFA is a nonprofit student organization dedicated to providing opportunities for learning and leadership within agriculture education programs across the country. Their 83 agricultural programs throughout Arizona serve over 11,000 students.
Auditors also found two former employees of Gila Bend Unified School District engaged in the unauthorized use of a District credit card. Former district secretary Margaret Perry and her daughter, former accounts payable clerk Lindsey Fernandez, spent a total of $1,476 on a district credit card, including purchases such as a laptop given to a family member as a graduation gift.
And auditors also uncovered that an employee of Hyder Elementary School District in western Arizona wrote unauthorized checks for personal expenses. Former office specialist Kalena Renaudin admitted to “borrowing” $7,417 from the district by issuing herself unauthorized checks.
Meanwhile, the auditor general found a former tech manager from Arizona State University may have embezzled over $124,000 after he used his ASU credit card for personal spending. Over four years, Carlos Urrea made 810 purchases, including 12 gaming consoles and 10 smartwatches, and attempted to conceal the activity by submitting forged receipts.
Four of the five individuals charged from these investigations pleaded guilty. The money has been repaid in both cases concerning Gila Bend Unified and Hyder Elementary School districts, and the offenders were sentenced to a combined total of 4 years of probation and 125 community service hours.
This story first appeared in AZ Mirror.
