~~DEVELOPING~~: Criminal Investigation Launched Into Missing Money From Treasurers Office:

Treasurer Jim Hoffman

The Greene County Sheriff and prosecutors office have launched a joint criminal investigation into missing money from the Greene County Treasurer's Office.

Sheriff Jim Arnott says that Treasurer John Hoffman contacted his office last Friday and said that he thought there was over $500 missing from the books in his office.

Sheriff Jim Arnott

Authorities say they are concentrating on a former female employee of the Treasurer's office in connection to the alleged theft and need to conduct more interviews before any charges will be filed.

Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore wants a forensic auditor to review the books in the Treasurers office to determine just how much money is missing. If it is over $25,000 that would upgrade the charges that a possible suspect/s would face.

Moore says that it's clear from the preliminary investigation that there needs to be some deeper digging into exactly how long this has gone on and how much money is missing.

Prosecutor Darrell Moore

If the charge is a class C felony ($500 to $25,000) the range of punishment is 1 day to 7 years in prison. If the charge becomes a class B felony ($25,000 or more) the range of punishment is 5 to 15 years in prison.

Hoffman says that he became concerned about a some discrepancies and started looking into them. "On Friday I pretty much had nailed down where I thought the problems were and by the end of the day she came in and confessed to doing it. I was shocked. We're a small office and I thought we were all kinda like family."

The Treasurer's office handles all banking activities of the county and invests excess funds. The Treasurer's office writes and disburses several different types of checks from payroll checks, accounts payable checks, to specialty checks such as jury checks.

Investigators believe more than one account inside the Treasurers office was manipulated, however, they do not believe the general revenue fund was breached.