Officials: Former Georgia deputy clerk stole millions from taxpayers
MUSCOGEE COUNTY, Ga. - The former deputy clerk of Muscogee County faces decades in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding millions of dollars from taxpayers to pay for his gambling habit.
Officials say 64-year-old Willie Demps worked for the Muscogee County Clerk for around 30 years and was in charge of money deposits received from fines and condemnations.
Between 2010 and 2019, Demps used a safe in his office to store the cash collected, which was rarely locked, and was supposed to deposit any cash received into the Clerk of Superior Court bank account.
While during that period records show the Clerk's Office received over $5.5 million in cash, officials say only a single cash deposit of around $210 was ever put into the official accounts.
Instead, authorities accuse Demps of using the money to issued checks worth at least $1.3 million to co-defendants, who then cashed the checks at banks in Columbus, Georgia and Alabama. Demps admitted to law enforcement that he used the money for personal expenses, at casinos, and to send to foreign countries.
"Rather than serve the people of Muscogee County, Willie Demps served only himself. Over the course of many years, Demps used his position of trust to steal millions of dollars from Muscogee County taxpayers to fund his gambling habit and pay for a variety of personal expenses," said U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary. "I want to commend the investigators with the FBI, IRS and Columbus Police Department for their meticulous and relentless effort to seek justice in this case."
Demps is also charged with not reporting the money he illicitly received to the IRS - leaving him with nearly $360,000 due to the government in taxes.
The Alabama man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of tax evasion before a U.S. District judge Tuesday. Demps now faces a maximum of 30 years imprisonment, five years supervised release, and a fine of $1 million for the bank fraud charge, and 10 years imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a $100,000 fine for the tax evasion charges. He also will be required to pay restitution.