A Chalmette woman stole from New Orleans apartment tenants and falsified documents to pay back a debt to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, state authorities say.
"Agents learned that LWC had received suspicious money orders from a claimant, Nakisah Whitaker, of Veronica Drive in Chalmette," the Louisiana Attorney General's office announced.
Authorities say Whitaker had received an overpayment of unemployment insurance, but LWC staff said that money orders sent by Whitaker appeared to have been altered.
The Louisiana Bureau of Investigation began to look into it.
"Shortly after LBI agents began investigation, they discovered the money orders had originated from occupants of a New Orleans apartment complex where Whitaker had been previously employed as a manager," the attorney general's office said. "Further investigation disclosed that Whitaker had been terminated for misuse of the company’s credit card. Whitaker made over $900 in unauthorized purchases on the company’s credit card."
Investigators say that when Whitaker was employed as a manager at the complex, she stole money orders, altered them, and submitted the now-fraudulent money orders to the LWC as payment.
"As a result of this scheme, Whitaker also redirected rental payments made by tenants and embezzled approximately $5,964 from the apartment complex," the attorney general's office said.