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Posted on 06/14/2002 8:21:27 PM PDT by GailA
Wilbun aide's use of credit triggers federal inquiry By Marc Perrusquia perrusquia@gomemphis.com June 14, 2002
A Juvenile Court Clerk employee abused a county purchasing card, racking up thousands of dollars in questionable travel and meal charges, an internal audit has found.
Now, a federal grand jury is asking questions too.
Darrell Catron charged more than $19,000 over seven months on a county VISA card before his dismissal last November, according to a report by county auditor Tommy W. Cates.
The report, dated June 4, found evidence of "some fraudulent" transactions and questioned at least $11,000 in charges. These charges include numerous transactions so lacking in supporting documentation that "a lucid distinction between business and personal use could not be determined."
The report evidently has caught the attention of federal authorities, who handed out a series of grand jury subpoenas Thursday.
FBI agents made afternoon visits to Juvenile Court Clerk Shep Wilbun's office and to the county's central finance office, seeking records and talking with officials. A copy of a grand jury subpoena obtained by The Commercial Appeal shows prosecutors are seeking records of credit card expenses, receipts, reimbursements and backup documentation involving all clerk employees from Dec. 5, 2000, to the present, a period that generally covers Wilbun's tenure. Wilbun, a former county commissioner, was appointed to the clerk's seat Dec. 20 of that year.
The subpoena also seeks all audits of the clerk's office over that period.
Tim DiScenza, the assistant U.S. attorney named on the subpoena, declined comment. Days after winning the appointment, Wilbun hired Catron, a politically active Memphian and one-time City Council candidate, as his top general in the clerk's office.
The new county audit report states Catron "exhibited a consistent practice" of receiving cash advances for meals on out-of-town trips while simultaneously using his procurement card at restaurants "and not crediting back the charges."
Catron, 35, could not be reached for comment.
His friend and confidant, County Commission chief administrator Calvin Williams, said Catron admitted making mistakes and intends to repay the county "whatever figure" officials determine he owes. The report comes as Wilbun, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Steve Stamson head toward a bitterly contested Aug. 1 election. Both sides have been digging for weeks into the affairs of their opponent.
Wilbun did not respond Thursday to a reporter's request for comment. His chief administrative officer, Matt Kuhn, said Wilbun would produce a prepared statement today in answer to several questions the newspaper passed to Kuhn on Thursday. Speaking Thursday evening to WMC-TV Channel 5, Wilbun said that FBI agents were inquiring into an audit finding incurred under previous clerk C. R. 'Bob' Martin.
An audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2001, noted that the clerk's office was holding more than $3 million in unpaid child support payments because parents who were owed the money couldn't be located. The report, released about the time Wilbun took office, recommended the funds be turned over to the state Treasurer as unclaimed property.
Wilbun didn't do that, launching instead his Funds For Families program, a media campaign pitched on roadside billboards and local radio stations, aiming to match parents with the unpaid child support payments. Responding to Wilbun's TV comments, Martin said he didn't consider the audit finding to be significant, in part, because the $3 million that piled up over more than two decades represented just a fraction of overall child support collections. The clerk's office was collecting about $60 million a year before the state took over child support collections from local clerks.
Martin said he believes Wilbun is wrongly trying to divert attention onto the previous administration.
"I strongly resent the implication," said Martin, who is serving as Stamson's campaign manager. "You can open up my records any time, any place." Records show Martin, who retired in 2000 after serving 16 years as clerk, didn't have a county credit or purchasing card. "I never wanted one of those things," he said.
Martin contends Catron's spending is reflective of larger problems under Wilbun.
Cates's report said a breakdown in controls led to credit card abuse that included the use of luxury-class rental cars that Catron used to make personal trips to Mobile, Ala., and to drive to Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore while on clerk business in Washington.
Records show Catron asked, with Wilbun's concurrence, to lift restrictions that prohibit the purchase of airline tickets, auto rentals and hotel expenses for most cardholders.
Credit card records reviewed by the newspaper show employees in the clerk's office spent more than $4,300 on meals - at least $2,000 at Memphis restaurants - and charged another $4,500 on hotels, including $170 at Memphis hotels.
Catron spent $580 on two meals during a trip last year to Washington, including a $362 tab picked up by taxpayers at B. Smith's in Union Station, where he dined with a member of U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr.'s staff.
Other charges by Catron include $29 at Hooter's in Nashville in April 2001 and a $280 charge by Wilbun this February at Landry's Seafood Restaurant in Memphis.
About 40 percent of the charges made by Wilbun, Catron and three other clerk employees between January 2001 and March of this year lacked supporting receipts, according to records reviewed in the central finance office.
- Marc Perrusquia: 529-2545
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