(WBIR) - The Alcoa Board of Education is seeking more than $5 million from a former employee who admitted stealing from the school system over a nearly six-year period.
Kathy Winters of Harriman pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of government money last year in federal court and was sentenced to a 40-month prison term.
She couldn't say how much she'd stolen while working as an administrative assistant to the special education director and while also serving as treasurer of the Tennessee Attendance Supervisors Steering Committee and the East Tennessee Steering Committee.
The steering committee provides training and information to help school attendance workers so they can improve their professional competencies, according to records.
Winters acknowledged forging her supervisor's signature on invoices, took cash from ATMs for her "personal gain," sometimes wrote checks to herself from the steering committee's account, and sought reimbursement for unauthorized travel expenses, records show.
Winters spent much of the money on personal expenses and sometimes paid her mortgage with stolen money, according to records.
She agreed in court documents to pay restitution of about $344,203.
The school system, which sued her previously, is seeking a motion for summary judgment in Blount County Circuit Court. It is seeking triple the restitution figure plus another $4.2 million in penalties, which represents 419 false claims it says she filed multiplied by the standard $10,000 for each false claim.
