Wickenburg Unified School District—Criminal Indictment—Conflict of Interest, Fraudulent Schemes, and Forgery

As part of their responsibility to prevent and detect fraud, Wickenburg Unified School District (District) officials took appropriate action by reporting to us an allegation of financial misconduct by former director of operations, William Moran. Our investigation revealed that from June 2017 through February 2018, Mr. Moran participated with a District contract awarded to a vendor he had an undisclosed conflict of interest with, and he may have created 2 false price quotes for other unrelated District contracts. We submitted our report to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which on September 13, 2021, presented evidence to the State Grand Jury. The action resulted in Mr. Moran’s indictment on 4 felony counts related to conflict of interest, fraudulent schemes, and forgery.