Utility Fraud

Local newscasts will air a story tonight regarding a former MLGW employee and an alleged scheme to defraud MLGW and our customers. The Grand Jury indicted this former employee for two counts of computer fraud over $10,000, a class C felony, and theft of services over $10,000, also a class C felony.

According to the indictment, the former employee allegedly called the computerized payment system for MLGW, then authorized and made valid payments on various customers’ accounts using either nonexistent bank accounts or bank accounts in which the holders did not authorize the transactions. These payments were allegedly made for customers who paid a fee and willingly gave their account numbers to the former employee up front.

The third count of the indictment alleges that the former employee obtained more than $10,000 in MLGW services by fraud. The indictment indicates that the alleged crimes occurred between January 1 and April 1, 2008.

The criminal indictment is the result of an investigation by the MLGW Revenue Protection department and was coordinated with the D.A.’s White Collar Crime Prosecution Unit.

MLGW takes very seriously any effort to defraud our customers or the utility. MLGW is a public utility and legally cannot offer monetary assistance to our customers. Instead, employees direct customers in need of monetary assistance to agencies that offer utility payments.

If a customer feels they have been a victim of this scam, they should call Revenue Protection at 321-6969.