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Oklahoma Beef Council files suit against former auditor

The Oklahoma Beef Council (OBC) has filed a lawsuit to recover $2.6 million of lost funds embezzled by its former employee.  The lawsuit was filed against the accounting firm Arledge & Associates and relates to the embezzlement of checkoff funds by one of the Council’s former employees.

The lawsuit alleges audits performed by Arledge & Associates for the OBC for fiscal years 2012 to 2015 were incorrect and misleading and failed to reasonably and properly perform a risk assessment of the Council.  The lawsuit seeks to recover all damage caused by Arledge & Associates’ alleged conduct.

Jim Denton, managing partner for Arledge & Associates said the OBC’s bookkeeping materials had already been altered to conceal any evidence of embezzlement before his firm’s auditors ever saw them.

Earlier this year Melissa Morton pled guilty to embezzling money from the Oklahoma Beef Council from 2009 through 2016 and tax fraud.  Her sentencing date is December 28, 2017.