{"id":28315,"date":"2017-05-11T14:30:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T19:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=28315"},"modified":"2019-01-08T10:53:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T16:53:22","slug":"former-accountant-accused-of-stealing-2-6-million-after-federal-probe-of-oklahoma-beef-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/05\/11\/former-accountant-accused-of-stealing-2-6-million-after-federal-probe-of-oklahoma-beef-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Accountant Accused of Stealing $2.6 Million After Federal Probe of Oklahoma Beef Council"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_27905\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-27905\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/02\/20170131-onsy-pics109_WEB-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"A long line of cattle are herded into a semi-trailer at Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City.\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A long line of cattle are herded into a semi-trailer at Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>A former accountant and compliance officer for the Oklahoma Beef Council faces federal bank fraud and false tax return charges after an probe into suspected embezzlement of more than $2.6 million.<\/p><p>The Beef Council, which is funded by a mandatory $1-per-head &#8220;check-off&#8221; fee paid every time ranchers and producers sell an animal, filed a civil lawsuit in October 2016 against the former employee, Melissa Morton. The charges come after <a href=\"http:\/\/harvestpublicmedia.org\/post\/26-million-paid-farmers-and-ranchers-embezzled-oklahoma-beef-council\">an investigation<\/a> from Harvest Public Media and StateImpact, which obtained <a href=\"http:\/\/harvestpublicmedia.org\/post\/oklahoma-embezzlement-probe-adds-questions-about-oversight-federal-beef-promotion-program\">an internal audit<\/a> detailing the alleged embezzlement.<!--more--><\/p><p>Federal prosecutors accuse Morton of stealing the money to &#8220;fund a children&#8217;s clothing boutique she opened with her family,&#8221; <em>The Oklahoman<\/em>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/newsok.com\/former-oklahoma-beef-council-accountant-accused-of-stealing-2.6-million-to-fund-clothing-store\/article\/5548710\">Brianna Bailey reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Peter Scimeca, an attorney for Morton, said in an email that his client is remorseful and is in the process of selling all her assets to repay the money.<\/p><p>&#8220;Mrs. Morton profoundly regrets her actions during employment with the Oklahoma Beef Council. She accepts responsibility and has and continues to fully cooperate with the FBI, U.S. attorney&#8217;s office, IRS and Oklahoma Beef Council in an aggressive effort to quickly pay back as much money as possible,&#8221; Scimeca said. &#8220;Melissa apologizes to all those who trusted her and most importantly her co-workers and family.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote><p>A small but growing group of ranchers are <a href=\"http:\/\/harvestpublicmedia.org\/article\/ranchers-rebel-over-beef-checkoff\">questioning state and federal oversight<\/a> of the check-off program and the local boards that collect the fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former accountant and compliance officer for the Oklahoma Beef Council faces federal bank fraud and false tax return charges after an probe into suspected embezzlement of more than $2.6 million.The Beef Council, which is funded by a mandatory $1-per-head &#8220;check-off&#8221; fee paid every time ranchers and producers sell an animal, filed a civil lawsuit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":27905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-noFeature.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[692],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28315"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31115,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28315\/revisions\/31115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}