BRUNSWICK, Ga. — William Harold Richards was in charge of reconciling purchases made with Glynn County purchasing cards. But according to federal prosecutors, he misused his own county-issued credit card to buy lottery tickets and other personal items.
That's according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
Now, a federal judge sentenced Richards, 51, to 2.5 years in federal prison for wire fraud— and ordered him to pay the county $422,168 in restitution for misusing his county card, the press release said.
“Taxpayers rightly expect employees of their government agencies to handle public money responsibly,” U.S. Attorney Jill Steinberg said. “William Richards did the opposite by defrauding taxpayers and enriching himself at their expense, and he is being held accountable for his crime.”
According to prosecutors, Richards had been hired by the Glynn County Department of Public Works in 2010. As part of his role, he supervised the employee purchasing cards and the county's billing system.
However, in September 2023, the FBI and the Glynn County Police Department say another employee caught wind of suspicious charges on Richards' own county purchasing cards, prosecutors say.
During the course of the investigation, they found Richards made multiple fraudulent purchases on his own county-issued card along with other employees' cards during the course of a two-year period, the press release said.
They even say Richards made payments to a fake company he created, and he would then transfer the county's funds and send them to his own bank account.
In his guilty plea, Richards admitted he "used the proceeds of this fraudulent scheme to make numerous personal purchases, including the purchase of lottery tickets."
“This type of fraud increases costs for all taxpayers in this country and erodes public trust in government,” Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta Keri Farley said.
Now, Richards will serve 2.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud. There is no parole in the federal judicial system. On top of the $422,168 in restitution to Glynn County, Richards will serve three years of supervised release after his time behind bars.
He also faces state charges of theft by conversion.
