Phoenix Union High School District—Fraudulent Schemes and Theft

As part of its responsibility to prevent and detect fraud, the Phoenix Union High School District (District) administrators took appropriate action by reporting a fraud allegation to our Office. We conducted an investigation revealing that from December 2012 through January 2016, Julie Kendall, former controller, illicitly altered district payroll software information, falsely reducing income amounts reported to federal and state taxing authorities for herself and her sister (also a district employee). Additionally, Ms. Kendall’s actions caused the software to generate electronic deposits of $4,400 and $4,000 to her and her sister’s respective bank accounts. We have submitted our report to the Attorney General’s Office, which, on July 24, 2017, presented evidence of Ms. Kendall’s alleged crimes to the Arizona State Grand Jury, resulting in her indictment on 13 felony counts.