COVINGTON, Ky. – The U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky Is reporting that the former administrative manager for the City of Covington Public Works Department, Allison Donaldson, 50, of Covington, pleaded guilty on Friday, before U.S. District Judge David Bunning, to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Donaldson was employed as an administrative manager for the Public Works Department, from 2005 until 2022, and had access to credit card information for the department. Her plea agreement explains that starting in February 2020 and continuing until February 2022, Donaldson knowingly defrauded the City of Covington, by using employee credit cards and making over $150,000 in purchases for herself and her home. Some of the purchases listed in the plea agreement include repairs for a Mercedes Benz, a Louis Vuitton agenda, a Chanel tote, Crate & Barrel furniture, and a remodel to her master bedroom and garage.
Donaldson was indicted in September 2022.
“Any time public servants turn to greed and misappropriate public funds, it does serious damage,” said Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “Not only does it deprive communities of necessary – and often very limited – resources, but it severely erodes the trust that communities place in their government. Her conduct was an egregious betrayal, for which she now faces the consequences. The dedicated efforts of our law enforcement partners made this important prosecution possible, and was the first step in repairing the damage to the Covington community.”
United States Attorney Shier; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; Daniel Cameron, Kentucky Attorney General; and Spike Jones, Chief of the Kenton County Police Department, jointly announced the guilty plea.
The investigation preceding the indictments was conducted by the FBI, the Kentucky Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigation, and the Kenton County Police Department. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Winslow.
Donaldson is scheduled to be sentenced on September 8. She faces up to 20 years for the wire fraud charge; she faces up to two years, run consecutively on the aggravated identity theft charge; and she faces criminal judgments for restitution and forfeiture of the property attained through the fraud. Any sentence, however, will be imposed by the Court, after its consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal sentencing statutes.
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