The Joco Conservation Department of abused funds discovered the investigation of the state auditor

The state auditor Rob Sand has been examining the Nature Conservation Department in Johnson County for over five years because of the abuse of Geldern. The final report published on Tuesday describes the abuse of thousands of dollars by the department.

“The special examinations were requested by district and department officials due to concerns about the management of the department and certain financial transactions of the nature conservation department, which were managed by the former director Larry Gullett and the Operations Superintendent Wade Schultz”

The specific concerns included the sinks that violate the law, fair work and human rights, the resources of the department, both of which were rarely seen at work, theft and much more.

The special examination was taken over from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2024, in which sand carried out a variety of procedures.

Some procedures included the survey of Johnson County and department employees, obtaining and reviewing mobile phone documents for Schultz, reviewing credit card and bank accounts and much more.

Anonymous letters, copies of photos and copies of social media posts also served as evidence of the investigation.

In addition, the procedures carried out showed the almost 94,000 US dollars in legal payouts, not supported payouts and non -collected income.

The inadmissible payments included non -authorized salary statements for Schultz, improper credit card transactions, improper fuel purchases and more that amounted to USD 63,504.57.

A total of 24,602.12 USD in non -supported payouts included purchases that were made using the department's credit card, which was made by Johnson County in the department.

Finally, the 5,381.60 USD did not find that wooden stocks either give away free of charge, used for personal reasons or acted against other articles.

In the study, other abuse of the funds such as salary statements, paid leisure, payments from ioway and more were discussed.

During the examination, the audit found that Gullett and Schultz were immediately transferred to administrative leave on June 6, 2024.

However, Gullett quoted his administrative holiday due to esophageal cancer in stage 4, in which Brad Friedhof took over the interim director. Gullett died later in September 2024.

Schultz is still listed as an employee of the Johnson County Conservation website.

The investigation ended with the fact that sand recommended several new procedures for district and department officials to prevent this from being again.

Copies of the report were also shared to the Sheriff office of the Johnson County, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Johnson County's Attorney Office and the Attorney General.