Former treasurer of state foreign language teacher association charged with theft of over $240K from organization

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2 days ago

A Muskego-Norway School District teacher and former treasurer of a nonprofit organization is facing a felony charge alleging she stole over $240,000 from the nonprofit and used it for her personal benefit.
Kellie Villalobos, 51, was charged June 2 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with one felony count of theft from a business setting over $100,000. If convicted, Villalobos could face a fine of up to $25,000, up to 12½ years in prison, or both, according to the criminal complaint.
As of the afternoon of June 4, Villalobos' name was still listed on the Muskego-Norway School District's website as a Spanish teacher. Muskego-Norway School District marketing and communications specialist Alyssa Meyer did not immediately respond to a reporter's phone or email messages seeking comment.
According to the criminal complaint:
From September 2014 until February 2024, Villalobos was treasurer for the Wisconsin Association of Foreign Language Teachers, a nonprofit organization providing professional development for world language teachers. Villalobos' role meant she had access to the organization's financial accounts. The complaint accuses Villalobos of misappropriating over $242,000 from the organization for personal purchases.
The investigation began in March 2024 when the association's current finance chair and co-treasurer made a complaint to the Milwaukee Police Department after the organization did a preliminary audit of its financial accounts. The audit revealed that at least $150,000 was missing or unaccounted for, the complaint said.
Issues were first noticed in January 2024, when the complaint said Villalobos spent down the organization's accounts to the point where it could not pay its bills. The Hilton Paper Valley Hotel notified the association on Jan. 25, 2024, that it had not paid a $17,075.72 bill from its November 2023 annual conference. Villalobos said she had forgotten about the bill because she had a house fire, the complaint said.
She said the hotel should receive payment by Jan. 30, 2024, but that did not happen. Villalobos then said she had been mistaken about the timing of the payment and that she would issue a check.
Hilton received the check Feb. 5, 2024, but it was rejected for insufficient funds, and the hotel notified the association on Feb. 10. Villalobos said she would arrange payments made on a credit card in $5,000 increments.
On Feb. 13, 2024, Villalobos deposited $3,000 from her personal account to the association's account, but that check bounced. When confronted, Villalobos claimed she accidentally used the association's credit card instead of her own and would reimburse the organization for the error. Villalobos was removed as treasurer Feb. 29, 2024.
After Villalobos' removal, several association members conducted an in-depth audit of her financial activities. When Villalobos started as treasurer in 2014, the organization's financial account balance was $141,354.63. From 2018 to 2024 the organization noticed the account's balance diminish rapidly from a starting balance of $203,799.94 in 2018 to $1,597.18 in 2024, the complaint said.
The organization's typical annual expenses came to about $34,000, an association official told police. That amount included the November conference and other expenses such as print, officer stipends and scholarships. The specific annual amounts could vary, but over a seven-year period, anticipated expenses should have totaled about $238,000, the complaint said. Instead, expenses totaled $626,191.92 between 2018 and 2024.
When an investigator with the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office reviewed the organization's financial account statements, they discovered "hundreds of fraudulent transactions," the complaint said.
For example, the investigator found:
47 transactions for Walmart from Jan. 13, 2022, through Nov. 4, 2023, totaling $4,776.31 for an account under Villalobos' name; items from 41 of those transactions were delivered to Villalobos' home.
$2,161.96 in transactions to Villalobo's WE Energies account between January 2020 and October 2023
multiple transactions to Expedia.com, a travel website, totaling $5,424.34 between November 2018 and April 2022
35 payments totaling $5,568.82 to Villalobos' Spectrum account charged to association credit cards between November 2019 and September 2023
256 item purchases from Amazon by Villalobos totaling $7,092.19 between August 2021 and January 2024
69 transactions for Instacart between August 2020 and November 2023 totaling $5,627.34. The delivery address for most of those transactions was Villalobos' house.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Villalobos; no hearing for the case has been set yet, according to online court records.
When a reporter tried calling May Y Lee, Villalobos' attorney, at her law office the afternoon of June 4, the person who answered said Lee was not available and declined comment.
Villalobos did not immediately respond to a reporter's phone calls requesting comment.
Contact Alec Johnson at [phone] or [e-mail]. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Villalobos accused of theft of over $240K from nonprofit