A Friendsville bookkeeper's little game of digital dress-up has led to her being outfitted with a set of cuffs. Brandi Marie McCraine McConniel, charged with inflating payroll hours to the sweet tune of over $100K, has been embroiled in a theft scandal at Knoxville's Goddard Industrial, according to police.
Authorities say McConniel, entrusted with processing the company's payroll, fattened her paychecks with unearned overtime, vacation, holiday, and miscellaneous hours. Since her hiring in 2020, the company allegedly bled a total of $103,193.84, as reported by WVLT News. Her daughter, also implicated in the hour-padding scheme, benefitted to the tune of $8,980.
The plot thickens, as McConniel, during an interview with detectives, reportedly admitted to the embezzlement, "I conducted the embezzlement scheme" McConniel confessed, according to a docket referenced by WATE News. The 52-year-old now faces one count of computer offense and one count of theft of property.
Meanwhile, the owner of Goddard Industrial stumbled upon the high-stakes deception while reviewing payroll records, unearthing the inflated hours and pay rates, Ground News reported. While McConniel’s daughter has managed to dodge charges for now, the district attorney could slap her with charges at a later date.
Neither a cleared ledger nor honest labor, the saga of McConniel's alleged grand larceny unfolds as a cautionary tale of trust placed and trust betrayed. The road to restitution for Goddard Industrial is now marred with the silhouette of legal proceedings and the quest for a sum wrongfully siphoned from its coffers.
