Twisted Sister

AL.com Alabama reports on an attorney ‘s guilty plea 

A South Carolina attorney has pleaded guilty to defrauding a University of Alabama sorority – her alma mater – of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a sorority house furnishing scheme.

U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance today announced 39-year-old Jennifer Elizabeth Meehan entered her plea Tuesday in federal court. Meehan, who was tasked with furnishing the University’s new Gamma Phi Beta house, was arrested last year and accused of defrauding the sorority of nearly $400,000 through schemes in which Meehan submitted invoices for a sorority’s furniture and equipment and received payment for them without ever actually providing the goods to the house.

Vance said Meehan was president of the House Corporation Board of the Epsilon Lambda Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority in an unpaid, volunteer capacity and was tasked with furnishing the $14 million sorority house between September 2013 and March 2015. The new house was the largest in the sorority’s national history.

According to the plea agreement, Meehan executed a bank fraud scheme to illegally obtain money from First Citizens Bank & Trust Company and the Bank of Tuscaloosa. Gamma Phi Beta’s account was at the Bank of Tuscaloosa and Meehan opened an account at First Citizens Bank under a fraudulent business name.

In September and November of 2014, Meehan submitted fraudulent furniture invoices totaling about $375,000 to Greek Resource Services, a contract company that handles the finances for fraternities and sororities at UA. GRS drew money from Gamma Phi Beta’s account at Bank of Tuscaloosa and gave Meehan two checks totaling about $375,000. She deposited that money into the newly opened First Citizens account, authorities said.

In January 2015, Meehan entered a First Citizens Bank & Trust branch in Anderson, S.C., and wired $175,000 from the fraudulent business account into her personal business account at Bank of America for her personal use, according to her plea agreement. The U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney David H. Estes prosecuted.

Under the plea agreement, Meehan agreed to forfeit, as proceeds of illegal activity, $234,648, and to pay additional restitution of $34,815 to Greek Resource Services. Initially charged with eight counts, the government agreed to drop seven other fraud and money laundering counts against Meehan as part of the agreement and agreed to recommend a 20-month prison sentence.

She had previously been publicly censured in Tennessee and reciprocally in South Carolina.

The Board of Professional Responsibility (the Board) of the Supreme Court of Tennessee specified respondent submitted a false resume to a potential employer and made false statements to disciplinary counsel for the Board.    

Bar discipline undoubtedly to follow for this conviction.

A suspension had already been imposed, according to this story from the Independent Mail. (Mike Frisch)