Westfield, Iowa — The former city clerk of Westfield is charged with first-degree theft for allegedly taking city funds.
The Plymouth County Attorney’s office filed charges against Angela Sorensen. The state auditor’s office conducted an investigation of the Westfield city funds dating from January 1st of 2013 up through September 30th of 2017.
The audit was conducted as a request of the city council. The state auditor’s office identified $39,970 of undeposited receipts, $28,060.30 of improper disbursements, and $6,163.46 of unsupported disbursements. The total amounted to more than $74,000 dollars.
Photo courtesy Radio Iowa
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Original post 12:04pm, 5/15/2019
Westfield, Iowa — A special investigation by the state auditor’s office has identified nearly $75,000 worth of improper transactions by the former city clerk in the Plymouth County town of Westfield.
The investigation was sparked by concerns about former Westfield City Clerk Angela Sorensen, who told auditors the city’s financial records were destroyed in a fire at city hall that started on the edge of her desk, and more recent records were lost due to a computer virus.
Auditors, though, were able to review about four-and-a-half years worth of records and identified nearly $40,000 of utility payments to the city that were never deposited. Sorenson was overpaid by more than $13,000 during the four-and-a-half year period and wrote herself about $4300 worth of unauthorized checks, plus another $3000 worth of checks which were redeemed for cash.
Copies of the auditor’s report have been forwarded to the Plymouth County Sheriff and County Attorney as well as the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the state attorney general.
