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Cousins!

Swiper, no swiping! Cousins, College Park Human Resource employee, LeShanda Mitchell, was arrested for finessing the heck out of her victims; totalling a financial loss of $100k in tax dollars. The former HR specialist racked up 32 felony counts for a variety of offenses: money laundering, computer forgery and identity theft.

Fox 5 Atlanta reports, there were nearly 12 identity fraud victims who were all hit by the same HR representative they all knew. College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom, shared her thoughts when she learned who the suspect was and told the media,  “When I heard the news, my heart sank,” adding “It’s a deeply troubling allegation.” She still struggles to process that a trusted employee could steal the identities of fellow colleagues and employees. 

Mitchell began her multiple identity thefts and payroll hauls back in 2018. She was the only one in charge of payroll during that time. Her alleged illegal side hustle was to wait for employees to ‘recently’ resign from the company, and then “cook the books” to make it appear as though they were very much still working. This way they could continue to receive paychecks.

Normally she was to make payroll deposits into the resigned employees accounts, but she diverted the funds into three different Green Dot bank accounts in her possession instead. $94,542.01 to be exact.

Mitchell’s illegal side gig unraveled when a former employee, Trent Davis, went to get a mortgage at the bank, for a house currently under construction. A quick cross check reference revealed a lot more than they ever anticipated. A College Park HR rep was asked by the bank to verify a former employee, and that’s when they realized he was still on the books getting paid.

Davis shared with the media, “After I got wind of what was going on, I noticed that my credit report shows that I have two places of employment,” he said.

In total Mitchell swiped $36,768 from Davis and made it rain into one of three of her trusted Green Dot accounts. David was taken aback because he had spoken with Mitchell and was familiar with her. He said “It’s very unnerving. You would expect that, that person in that position has your best interests at heart.”

Davis had to do a lot of work to fix his accounts and worries about how all of it will affect him, being able to close on his home once it’s completed. He is considering his options to sue the city, after receiving a letter from College Park notifying him of the circumstances. Davis’ attorney, Nicole Messiah added “It’s not just the employees that may have suffered or been harmed. It’s the families because there’s a lot of personal information involved in those files.”

Current College Park Manager Mercedes Miller, says they have new measures in place that offer checks and balances to prevent this from ever happening again.

Cousins, are there things we could be doing more of, to protect our identities from fraudsters? Please share tips below!