Yavapai County Education Service Agency - Misuse of Public Monies

During the Yavapai County 2012 annual audit, Auditor General staff noted discrepancies when reviewing the documentation related to the State of Arizona’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act–State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. As a result of this documentation, our Office commenced an investigation revealing that in September and October 2011, Ms. Rebecca Stolzberg, former finance administrator of the Yavapai County Education Service Agency (Agency), created false invoices totaling $19,473 for the Agency to receive improper payments under provisions of a grant. Specifically, Ms. Stolzberg created four false invoices, falsified a reimbursement request form, and submitted this fraudulent documentation to the Arizona Governor’s Office of Education Innovation in order to obtain reimbursement from the grant. She was able to misuse state monies undetected because she was allowed to prepare, approve, and submit reimbursement requests without any independent review. Also, during the Agency’s annual audit, Ms. Stolzberg submitted this same falsified documentation to the auditors without providing an explanation on the circumstances of the false documentation even after auditors made several attempts to obtain an explanation, thereby misleading the auditors during the audit. On October 21, 2013, the Arizona State Grand Jury indicted Ms. Stolzberg on three felony and misdemeanor charges related to misuse of public monies, fraud schemes, and impeding an audit.