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MOOLENAAR CHARGED WITH EMBEZZLEMENT

A member of Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's Cabinet has been charged with 63 counts of embezzlement. Agents of the government's Fraud and Corruption Task Force have filed a criminal complaint against acting Health Commissioner Dr. Lucien Moolenaar II, alleging that from 1995 to 2000, more than $102,000 was illegally added to his biweekly government paycheck.
Documents filed in Territorial Court late Thursday alleged that Moolenaar had been receiving $1,626.95 every other pay period in addition to his regular pay.
Justice Department special agents working with inspectors from the Bureau of Audit and Control uncovered the overpayment while investigating a formal complaint from Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull.
The complaint also accuses Moolenaar of not paying taxes on the extra income he received from the government.
According to the documents filed Thursday, investigators also found that Moolenaar misstated his monthly income in a 1994 bankruptcy filing in District Court, omitting the additional government monies he made. Moolenaar reported salary and commission of $4,175.46 in June 1995 and $5,799.41 in July 1996, a difference of $1,626.95.
The court documents accuse Moolenaar of retaining the monies inadvertently delivered to his possession by his employer and converting those funds to his own uses and purposes without authorization.
According to the task force, Moolenaar received a total of $102,497.85 in overpayments during the following five-year period:
– 1995: $ 9,761.17
– 1996: $19,523.40
– 1997: $19,523.40
– 1998: $19,523.40
– 1999: $19,523.40
– 2000: $14,642.55
The government suggested that probable cause exists to charge Moolenaar with embezzlement.
Government House spokesman James O'Bryan Jr. said Friday that in light of the criminal complaint being filed, Moolenaar has resigned his position as acting Health commissioner and has taken leave from the deputy commissioner position. O'Bryan said St. Croix Assistant Health Commissioner Mavis Matthew is being tapped to lead the health Department in the interim.
Moolenaar, who has been employed with the government for more than 30 years, maintains a private dental practice on St. Thomas. He has served as acting Health commissioner since the governor fired former Commissioner Wilbur Callendar last year.
Moolenaar becomes the second government official to be named in criminal complaints this week. On Thursday, the task force charged the former regional manager of the Tourism Department office in Chicago, Susanna Hodge Riddle, with 44 counts of embezzlement for her alleged misappropriation of nearly $20,000 in government funds.

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