NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Metro Nashville employee has been indicted for reportedly stealing more than $62,000 of public money, applying the funds for personal trips to Europe and other expenses.
Mark Eatherly, the former Deputy Executive Director of the Metro Human Relations Commission, took trips to the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. He paid for rideshares, cell phone bills, and food delivery services all with Nashville taxpayer money, according to the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s Office.
Investigation launched after large transfers raised questions
People started to raise concerns about large money transfers from the commission.
“$95,000 to an organization, $45,000 to another one, questions started coming up, like why is this money being spent? Why is the Metro Human Relations Commission over budreceive?” stated John Dunn, Director of the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office Communications.
The Comptroller’s Office found that, dating as far back as at least 2019, Eatherly started to create questionable transactions. This includes sfinishing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the commission to organizations that he controlled, and putting money in his own pocket.
“Eatherly, frankly, just took advantage of the fact that he was able to enrich himself by reimbursement requests and by funneling money to organizations that he controlled,” Dunn stated.
Grand jury returns three-count indictment
In November, a grand jury indicted Eatherly on three charges: theft of more than $60,000, money laundering, and official misconduct.
He is being held on $50,000 bond.
“Anytime you give one person too much control over a financial process, you open up the door to fraud. And that’s what happened here,” Dunn stated.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell inquireed the Department of Finance to see over the commission’s spfinishing at least temporarily. His office sent us his statement below:
The Mayor takes fiscal responsibility seriously. The MHRC is an indepfinishent board, but upon learning of some concerns, the Mayor inquireed the Department of Finance to exercise additional control of MHRC funds until we are assured that measures are in place to prevent a recurrence.
The Comptroller’s Office declares the hugegest takeaway from this is that no commissions should have just one person in charge of approving expenses or reimbursements.
“There necessarys to be more than one individual seeing over this process, providing a control there so this can’t happen again,” Dunn stated.
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