Three officials from Kentucky's Martin County have been accused of diverting bingo profits from the county Senior Citizens Center. The Office of Charitable Gaming reported that an examination of the center's financial papers last year showed bingo profits to be $200,000 for the years 2000 to 2002, money that was never deposited in the Center's bank account.
Ronald Workman, a former mayor of the city of Warfield who began the bingo games 11 years ago to raise funds for his town, and his sister, Linda Gail Crum, the Senior Citizens Center's chairwoman, were each indicted Friday in Martin Circuit Court for felony diversion of funds in 2000. The Center's director and former CEO, Sue Richmond Sluss, has been indicted on three counts of alleging diversion of funds.
The Senior Citizen Center used charitable bingo profits to fund the “Meals on Wheels” program, but had no other choice than to quit when the games stopped being profitable.
The three have been charged with seven different counts each for lying to investigators, and additional counts for individual felonies. Seven of the total charges against Crum involve the alleged underreporting of deposits. In addition, Workman was charged with depositing a check from the center in the account of the County Sportsman's Club, which he started.
Although the total amount of money generated at the Martin County parlor is currently unavailable, the bingo parlor that Workman had opened in Warfield reportedly grossed $2.3 million in 1996. |