Fort Gay Mayor and Recorder face embezzlement Charges

By Roberta Cantrell

BSN Editor

West Virginia State Auditor J.B. McCuskey explains how a gap in state law may have allowed alleged embezzlement and theft by the Fort Gay Mayor and town Treasurer and Recorder to go on for several years undetected.

McCuskey said the warning signs began with Sheila Bowen, who held both town treasurer and town recorder positions.

The West Virginia Auditors office received a tip in October, which was passed along to WV State Troopers. An investigation was done and in Nov., both Bowen and Mayor Joetta Hatfield were found to have allegedly embezzled nearly $200,000 from the town and the town’s water company.

According to McCuskey, Fort Gay actually left the P-card or purchasing card program a long time ago, in which they then got a bank to issue them their own P-card, which he believes was one reason that the scheme fell through the cracks within the auditor’s office.

McCusky said having someone in both positions is an enormous problem.

“It is essentially the same reason why you have an auditor and a treasurer in state government. One of them is to determine whether or not you have the money, and the other one is to determine whether or not the money is being spent legally.”

McCusky also says Fort Gay has no audit on file since 2016 because they refused to participate in the audits and the auditor has no authority to force compliance.

“It’s very nerve-racking to have a duty you can’t force,” McClusky said.

A legislation that is designed for places like Fort Gay would give auditors the power to dissolve towns that do not cooperate. The proposal has been introduced several times and turned down.

McCusky said the Fort Gay allegations show why forcing audits or dissolving towns who don’t cooperate is so important.

“To be fair, if you’re unwilling to be audited, you have no business being a government,” said McCusky. That is a key baseline duty that every government owes to single one of the people that funds it, is to open your books.”

Both Hatfield and Bowen remain free on bond until their mid-January court date and have been charged with fraudulent schemes, embezzlement, falsifying accounts and money laundering.