Melissa Morton, a former staff member of the Oklahoma Beef
Council (OBC), was sentenced today to 57 months in federal prison and five
years of supervised release for her theft of $2.68 million dollars from the OBC
over a seven-year period. Morton was also ordered to pay restitution to the OBC
in the amount of $2.3 million.
In a statement released today, OBC Chairman Angie Meyer said,
"While there is no sentence that would truly rectify the harm these crimes
have done to our organization and to our producers, we are satisfied knowing we
have done everything in our power to cooperate with Federal authorities to seek
justice.”
According to federal law, Morton will be required to serve at
least 80-85% of her sentence.
Additionally, the OBC has filed a lawsuit against its former
auditors, Arledge and Associates (Arledge). The lawsuit alleges that Arledge
was the accounting firm engaged to perform audits of the OBC for fiscal years
2012-2015. The lawsuit further alleges that after a thorough investigation by
third-party experts in forensic accounting, it became clear that Arledge’s
audit opinions were incorrect and misleading, and that Arledge failed to
perform the audits in accordance with reasonable and applicable auditing
standards. The OBC is seeking to recover all damages caused by Arledge in the
lawsuit.
Following the sentencing, the OBC Board of Directors expressed
its continued regrets to the farming and ranching families it serves:
“As beef producers, the intangible harm of this former
employee’s actions will be felt for some time as we work to rebuild the trust
that was broken,” said Meyer. “It’s important to know the OBC has taken the key
steps to ensure such a crime never happens again.”
According to the OBC, these steps include:
- Contracting with a third-party accounting firm with circulating accountants for all accounting services
- Utilizing a five-step financial review process
- Instituting an Audit/Risk committee with an independent audit advisor to the committee
Entering into 2018, the OBC Board of Directors and staff are
continuing forward with their mission of working to strengthen beef demand for
Oklahoma’s beef producers. This includes new programs focused on digital
marketing and social media plus enhanced export efforts.