FBI investigating following termination of finance director

The FBI is investigating the financial dealings of Vance County’s former finance director. County manager Renee Perry confirmed the investigation to WRAL.

Katherine Bigelow was terminated in February after Perry said she misrepresented her qualifications as a CPA, or certified public accountant.

A financial audit found that Bigelow wired more than one million dollars of county funds to a company that she was affiliated with.

“The County also failed to comply with G.S. 159-28(b), which requires at least two signatures on all checks or drafts issued by a government, one being the Finance Officer or properly designated Deputy Finance Officer, and the other by another official of the local government designated for that responsibility by the governing board,” the audit reads.

The report also details several other issues, including overspending, insufficient training and lack of oversight.

“This action was able to go undetected for the time that it did due to a lack of understanding by the staff of the County in their assigned duties, and no cross-training of individuals who would have been able to provide oversight on the transactions,” according to the audit.

The audit findings were presented to the Board of Commissioners June 3 by Thompson Price Scott Adams and company.

“We finally started digging into why we weren’t getting the numbers we wanted…and the timeliness of the numbers…and the accuracy of the numbers. We began to dig into why weren’t the numbers reconciled, why weren’t they timely…which led to our discovery,” the auditor said during the meeting. “Our folks started going, ‘The answers she's giving us are not what somebody in her position should be giving us.’”

In February, WRAL asked Perry if there have been any inconsistencies with the county’s budget, given Bigelow’s removal. Perry said there were no inconsistencies with the budget at the time.

During the June 3 meeting, the auditor said he brought those concerns to the previous county manager. Perry and other commissioners pressed him during the meeting, saying he should have relayed those concerns to her when she assumed her position in November 2023.

“We should have contacted Ms. Renee; I'm not disputing that,” the auditor said. “When she came on board, by the end of November, we should have said we need to have a conversation… Maybe I was just totally focused on getting data and not contacting management, which I will assume that responsibility.”

Another commissioner questioned the auditor about their responsibility to identify the financial issues sooner.

“Y'all been doing this since 2019, and y'all are just finding this now for 2023. Do y'all hold yourself any account for what’s going on?” they asked.

“Internally, we have done some looking. We think we did everything correctly. It’s unfortunate, but the reality is, a financial audit is not traditionally designed to pick up fraud,” the auditor said.

WRAL asked how the county is making changes to prevent a similar occurrence.

“To prevent in the future, we have internal controls in place that allow for dual signature on wire transactions. We are also working on an overhaul of our financial policies and procedures,” Perry responded via email.

The county has 60 days to provide a plan to fix the issues presented in the audit.

Bigelow previously served as the finance director since 2019. Perry also said Bigelow has died. The cause of death is unclear.