Prairieville Woman Pleads Guilty To Embezzling More Than $77,000 From The U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs

BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced the conviction of MICHELLE AKRIDGE, age 45, of Prairieville, Louisiana, who pled guilty today before U.S. District Judge James J. Brady to theft of government funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.

According to the factual basis presented to the Court in connection with her plea, AKRIDGE stole over $77,000 in United States Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) benefits that were intended for her mother.  Following her mother’s death, AKRIDGE failed to report the death of her mother and withdrew the funds for her own personal use.  At her re-arraignment hearing, AKRIDGE admitted that she had fraudulently obtained more than $77,000 in VA DIC benefits over a four-year period.

U.S. Attorney Green stated: “This kind of criminal conduct is an affront to all those who have served honorably in this country’s armed services. We appreciate the VA-OIG’s efforts to identify this type of fraudulent conduct and bring it to this Office’s attention so that we may take action.”

This investigation is being conducted by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Office of Inspector General.  The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jessica M.P. Thornhill.