Mass. Clerk held in sophisticated $2m theft : Much of court’s money vanished, prosecutors say

The Boston Globe reports:

For half her life, Marie Morey worked as a low-level accounting clerk, pushing papers in the Probation Department at Lawrence District Court. Covering just four towns, the small courthouse had a cash flow of $2.4 million a year. But in just three years, prosecutors allege, Morey stole a stunning proportion of that money.

She is accused of pilfering $2 million by pocketing countless cash payments to the court and executing a massive embezzlement scheme that, despite its improbable scale, somehow managed to elude detection.

Prosecutors said that Morey, a 38-year-old who had worked in the department since 1990, employed a host of complex accounting maneuvers to pocket an astounding $12,000 a week from 2006 until this summer, when she left work amid sharp questioning from suspicious auditors.

“This case involves a very elaborate, intricate, and sophisticated scheme,’’ Assistant District Attorney Michael Patten said yesterday at Morey’s arraignment in Essex Superior Court.

Great moments in government!