Glendale Elementary School District—Criminal Indictment—Theft, Misuse of Public Monies, Fraudulent Schemes, and Computer Tampering

As part of their responsibility to prevent and detect fraud, Glendale Elementary School District (District) officials took appropriate action by reporting to us alleged financial misconduct by former payroll technician Anna Pacheco. Our investigation revealed that from August 2018 through November 2019, Ms. Pacheco may have deleted 168 of her used leave hours from the District’s payroll software thereby converting those hours to unused leave, creating the opportunity to use those hours twice. She later reused 77 of those converted leave hours resulting in a District overpayment of $1,660. We have submitted our report to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which on December 12, 2022, presented evidence to the State Grand Jury. The action resulted in Ms. Pacheco’s indictment on 6 felony counts related to theft, misuse of public monies, fraudulent schemes, and computer tampering.