NKyTribune staff
Bridget Johnson waived a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Kenton District Court. The case now goes to the grand jury, which has 60 days to hear the case.
Johnson
Johnson, former director of finance for meetNKY/Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau (the CVB), was arrested by Covington police Nov. 16, for her alleged role in a sophisticated criminal activity that resulted in the embezzlement and misappropriation of more than $3 million in funds from the organization.
Law enforcement officials believe Johnson created fraudulent invoices to the CVB on behalf of several bogus vendors and paid millions to these vendors from three different bank accounts over the course of about 16 months. She is then alleged to have taken steps to cover up the activities from the organization.
Johnson, who worked for the CVB for more than 20 years, has been charged with theft by unlawful taking of more than $1 million, unlawful access to a computer, and abuse of the public trust of more than $100,000. She remains in jail on a $500,000 bond.
meetNKY President and CEO Eric Summe issued the following statement regarding Tuesday’s proceedings:
meetNKY | Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau (the CVB) continues to work with Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders, local and national law-enforcement agencies, into the investigation and criminal prosecution of Bridget Johnson.
Johnson is the CVB’s former director of finance who has been accused of embezzling funds from our organization.
Summe
Despite having numerous internal accounting controls in place, Johnson, over the past 18 months, allegedly evaded established procedures and set up an unauthorized electronic payment process that allowed her to create and pay bogus invoices. She then hid this activity from organizational leadership, our Board of Commissioners, and third-party auditors, according to investigators.
While authorities have mentioned that more arrests may be made, no other CVB staff members are believed to have known about or been implicated in the alleged criminal activity.
As has been previously reported, the losses incurred by the CVB are considerable and we are firmly focused on restoring public trust in our organization while continuing our important mission of attracting conventions, meetings, and visitors to our region. This includes preparing for the upcoming Council of State Governments Conference, which is expected to attract 800 to 1,000 of the highest-ranked state-government leaders from around the nation to our region on Dec. 6 through Dec. 9.
Our current efforts are focused on reviewing all CVB processes and put in place additional controls and safeguards to ensure this type of criminal activity does not occur in the future.
This is, without a doubt, the greatest challenge the CVB has faced in our 44-year history. Yet rest assured, our Board of Commissioners along with our dedicated staff remain committed to, making the necessary changes to our financial policies and oversight systems, working diligently with law enforcement, and above all, continuing to promote our region as a great destination.
A final note to clarify the relationship between CVB and the Northern Kentucky Convention Center: While the CVB and the Northern Kentucky Convention Center are intertwined due to their similar missions of attracting and hosting visitors, conventions, trade shows and group tours to Northern Kentucky, the two organizations operate independent of one another and have separate budgets, boards of directors, administrative leadership, staff and locations.
The Northern Kentucky Convention Center is not involved in this issue.
