Former Official Accused of Stealing Nearly $700,000 from St. Louis County Charity

ST. LOUIS - A former official of a charity that houses adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities has been indicted and accused of embezzling about $690,000 over more than a decade.

Joelle Fouse, 57, was indicted October 9 with three felony counts of wire fraud. She is surrendering Tuesday and will appear in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to plead not guilty.

The indictment says that Fouse was the manager / director of finance and human resources for the charity from October 2012 through December 2023, when she was terminated. Fouse was responsible for payroll, expense reimbursement and maintaining the charity's books and records. She stole from the charity in three ways, the indictment says. Fouse provided false information to a third-party payroll processing company that caused the company to make 71 unauthorized payments totaling $139,810 to multiple bank accounts controlled by Fouse, the indictment says. The indictment also accuses Fouse of triggering 181 unauthorized expense payments into bank accounts she controlled, totaling $407,186. Finally, Fouse allegedly used her company credit card to make184 unauthorized purchases totaling $133,210. The charity also overpaid the employer portion of payroll taxes by about $10,694 due to the inflated payroll, the indictment says.

The indictment says Fouse took cash out of ATMs and used the charity's funds for travel, clothing, entertainment, restaurant meals, rent payments and day-to-day expenses for herself and relatives. She tried to cover up her crimes by making false entries in financial and accounting records, it says.

The charity contacted the FBI and cooperated with their investigation.

Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Each wire fraud charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine.

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is prosecuting the case.