EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Former Vanderburgh County Commissioner Ben Shoulders, who is accused of fraud, makes his first court appearance since being arrested.
Shoulders was arrested Wednesday and is now out on bond.
The state is charging him with a combination of felonies, misdemeanors and one infraction.
Court records show one of those alleged crimes stretches back to 2020. Shoulders is formally charged with a number of campaign finance offenses on Thursday.
In an Evansville courtroom, Shoulders pleads not guilty to six charges including fraud, false informing and commingling committee funds with personal funds.
He is alleged of taking more than $55,000 from his Shoulders for Commissioner account and using it to purchase sporting event tickets and sports memorabilia.
Police say Shoulders reported those fraudulent charges more than a year ago in October 2023.
Investigators have been on the case ever since.
“What started with a few transactions on eBay ended up to be a significant amount of money, and by the end, over $50,000 was unaccounted for. And that was all from Shoulders for Commissioner account,” says Evansville Police Sergeant Trudy Day.