Moore’s theft of $3.2 million from taxpayers the ultimate betrayal of trust – Daily Local

KENNETT TOWNSHIP—When authorities discovered Kennett Township Manager Lisa Moore embezzled millions of dollars from taxpayers in 2019, it made national news. This year, Moore began to pay for her crimes.

Today, Moore, 48, sits in Muncy Correctional Institution in Muncy, Pa., serving a 3-to-10 year prison sentence for her crime of embezzling more than $3.2 million from Kennett Township. The facility is one of only two in the state that accommodates female inmates.

Moore’s arrest in 2019 marked one of the largest examples of public corruption in the county and seemed to turn the once-staid township on its head. Angry residents flooded township Board of Supervisors’ meetings demanding to know how Moore — a relatively modestly paid employee would have worked her way up the municipal ladder from clerk to manager, the first in the township’s history — was able to steal such a large amount of money for so long without being detected.

Kennett officials said that the township has received restitution of $1.7 million, which includes a cash settlement of $1.27 million from Moore, $355,000 from the sale Moore’s house, and $83,000 that a recovery team located and seized from Moore’s personal account.

Kennett Township supervisors Sudder Stevens, Richard Leff and Whitney Hoffman said Moore’s theft was the ultimate breach of trust. And it likely was responsible for Hoffman losing her seat on the board in the most recent election. Voters turned their anger toward the supervisors, rationalizing that they should have had more oversight. However, Moore was embezzling township funds long before the supervisors were elected to office.

Supervisors were surprised to learn that Moore, making more than $100,000 per year — which allowed her to live comfortably – would find the need to steal from them.

An investigation that cost Kennett taxpayers more than $1 million found the money was stolen from employee benefits, the police department, land preservation and other township operations.  Moore used the money for extravagant personal expenses, including foreign trips, jewelry and designer clothes, according to the criminal complaint by Chester County detective Robert Balchunis.

An accounting prepared for the judge showed the payroll payments, which Moore disguised as compensatory time, unused vacation time, sick time and overtime, totaling $1.16 million; the payments to her credit cards totaling $547,000; the transfers to her E*Trade account totaling $912,527; the use of the township credit card for personal purchases at $214,032; and miscellaneous payments totaling $407,666. In all, she stole $3,249,453 from taxpaying citizens in Kennett Township.

So far, the township has recovered 53 percent of money stolen from taxpayers, and Stevens said an investigation into other embezzling cases in the nation resulted in an average of only an 8 percent recovery rate.

The township has also recovered $1 million from a bond it held on Moore, putting the total amount recovered to date at $2.7 million.

However, the township has spent over $1 million in legal and attorney fees in attempting to document and recover the funds, putting the total loss of Moore’s crimes at $4.2 million. It means the township is in the hole by just over $1.5 million.

During her tenure of township manager for more than a decade, Moore had amassed a pension of $440,000. Those funds, Stevens said, are now being used to support other township pension obligations, due to a state law that forbids anyone from profiting from a crime while employed by the state or a municipality.

As part of her sentence, she will also forfeit her public pension, be barred from holding any position of fiduciary responsibility with any government of non-profit organization, and must report her sentence and supervision to any future employer. Including probation, she will be in the criminal justice system for the next 15 years.

And if Moore comes into money after she is released from prison, by lottery, inheritance or other means, supervisors promised they would aggressively pursue that money until they are made whole.

Eden Ratliff, township manager who replaced Moore, said the township has a vastly new financial reporting system today, and has even replaced QuickBooks.

“Kennett Township finances are secure,” Ratliff said. “We have overhauled our systems and processes and industry-leading best practices to significantly reduce the change of fraud, and substantially increase our internal and external oversight. Financial management in Kennett Township looks nothing like it did two-and-a-half years ago.

Township officials are now also monitoring Personal Time Off, and making sure every employee utilizes the benefit. Supervisor Richard Leff said employees are now trained to identify what theft looks like and to report anything that appears unusual.

“Lisa Moore’s criminal actions upended lives and careers,” said Hoffman in an impact statement. “Her embezzlement and deceptions did not merely steal taxpayer money — they destroyed trust all over Kennett township and within our local government, trust that took years to cultivate. Her actions smeared the good name of dozens of innocent volunteers, public officials and service providers.”