(Des Moines, Iowa) – A report by the Iowa Capital Dispatch says the Iowa woman accused in a state audit of stealing close to $400,000 in taxpayer money between 2015 and 2022 has yet to be criminally charged in the case. In January, Auditor of State Rob characterized the matter as a case of “embezzlement” that involved programs funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and administered by the state agency called Iowa Workforce Development. The federal money was routed from IWD to the Central Iowa Workforce Development Board, and then to the so-called “subrecipient” of the funds, Children and Families of Iowa, Sand said.
At Children and Families of Iowa, administrator Jodi Spargur-Tate headed a program tasked with distributing the funds to Iowans for job-training opportunities. The auditor’s investigation identified $436,180 worth of improper and unsupported disbursements by Spargur-Tate, some dating back to May 2015. The questionable spending included $324,586 in payments that were routed to Spargur-Tate herself, according to the auditor’s report. “And then there was about another $100,000 that was diverted to Spargur-Tate’s family members for things like rent, utilities and cellphone service,” Sand said in January.
The alleged embezzlement was uncovered in 2022 when a worker who was filling in for Spargur-Tate during the latter’s vacation noticed one recipient of the funds didn’t have a car but was claiming expenses for auto repairs. Children and Families of Iowa investigated further and then alerted IWD to the potential issues. That led to the special investigation by the auditor. Some of the improper payments the audit found were made by Spargur-Tate at Children and Families of Iowa are alleged to include $77,730 that was routed to a relative, Dee Dee Millard, for day care services that were never rendered; $10,014 that went to U.S. Cellular; and $6,167 in payments to MidAmerican Energy.
At the time of Sand’s January announcement, the auditor’s office stated that it had shared its findings in the matter with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Polk County Attorney’s Office, and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. Since then, no state or federal criminal charges have been filed in the case. Representatives of the Polk County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office said this week their offices had not received any criminal referral in the case…