KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — A former accountant of a Knoxville non-profit that helps abused children will serve at least three years in prison after admitting to stealing more than $2 million from the charity over a nine-year period.
U.S. District Court judge Thomas Varlan sentenced Angie Brown, 50, to serve 36 months in prison and three years of supervised release for wire fraud and filing a false tax return. Brown pleaded guilty in May 2021 to the crimes.
In all, the government found she forged 885 fraudulent checks from her former employer, ChildHelp, amounting to more than $2 million from 2012 to 2020.
She'd write a company check to herself, deposit the money in her personal account and then go back and alter the check receipt to make it appear as if it were being written to someone to whom the agency owed money, according to the government.
According to court records, her household got more than $550,000 in unclaimed income from the scheme for which taxes were not paid. As part of her sentence, she was ordered to pay back the $2 million she stole as well as the $550,000 in outstanding taxes.
"Defendant admitted that she had over a nine-year period written forged and fraudulent checks to herself, deposited those checks into her personal checking account and then altered ChildHelp's bank statements to conceal her fraud," the plea agreement states.
Brown had worked for ChildHelp since 2006, according to her LinkedIn profile. Police records show she was arrested and booked Aug. 7, 2020, on charges of forgery and theft. The non-profit said it discovered the theft after its chief financial officer conducted an internal review.
"He discovered some possible financial discrepancies and payments at our program here in Tennessee. They were able to identify the source of the activity and turn the matter over to law enforcement for investigation," the organization said in 2020.
ChildHelp has extensive experience helping law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts with cases involving child abuse. The charity provides forensic investigators who speak to children to determine if and how they were abused.