Former employee in state treasurer's office charged with stealing state funds

By David Mendell

Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL

Published Monday, April 1, 2008

A retired employee of the Illinois state treasurer's office has been charged by federal authorities with pocketing more than $263,000 in state money through a complex series of wire transfers while she worked for the state.

Debra Kay Kirby, 53, of Taylorville was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury in Springfield on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, according to U.S. Attorney Rodger Heaton's office.

Kirby, who retired in May 2006, worked for the treasurer's office for 33 years; the embezzlement allegedly occurred in 2005.

Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who took office in 2007, noted that Kirby did not work under his administration but said that such a breach the public trust, if proved true, "outraged" him.

Kirby, who made $67,000 per year in then-Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka's Springfield office, is accused of transferring $750,000 into a personal bank account she controlled. She shifted $263,408 of that money into her own accounts, according to the indictment.

She then used a mistaken payment to the state of $263,408 from Pekin Hospital to camouflage the stolen funds, according to the indictment. To cover the remaining balance, she submitted a deposit in that amount from the money she took, which made the books appear to be balanced, Giannoulias said.

Giannoulias' staff discovered the scheme just a few weeks ago.