Saline County Sheriff's Department deputies arrested a former employee of the Malta Bend School district on suspicion of embezzling money from the school.

Carla J. Dankenbring, 33, of Waverly, was arrested on March 27 after a months-long investigation by the department.

According to a probable-cause statement, Malta Bend School officials reported finding discrepancies in school accounts while implementing a new bookkeeping system at the school. As a result of these findings a forensic audit of the school's financial records was performed by the firm of Moore, Horton & Carlson CPA. The audit was performed on records for the period between July 1, 2004 and Jun 30, 2006. The latter date was the final day of Dankenbring's employment with the school system, the report said.

The audit revealed six checks to one credit card account in which Dankenbring was listed as an authorized user and 10 checks to another credit card account belonging to a family member of Dankenbring. The cumulative total of the sixteen checks was $38,518.54, according to the statement.

Investigators also found discrepancies in payroll checks written by Dankenbring as well as other instances of inconsistencies and unauthorized credits to Dankenbring. According to the statement, auditors suspected that Dankebring had embezzled a total of $56,549.58 in school district funds.

The Malta Bend School District said in a news release that all findings had been forwarded to the Saline County Sheriff's Department and any further action by law enforcement will be at the discretion of law enforcement officials. The district did not have further comment due to federal and state laws and upon the advice of their lawyers.

Dankenbring was taken into custody and remains on a 24-hour hold at the Saline County Justice Facility where charges from Saline County Prosecutor Don Stouffer are pending.

Contact Zach Sims at

marshallbusiness@socket.net