By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
A man charged as being complicit in the $4 million meetNKY/Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau embezzlement case appeared in Kenton County District Court for a preliminary hearing Tuesday.
Keith Tasher (seated in pink jumpsuit) appeared for a preliminary hearing in Kenton County District Court Tuesday. Tasher is charged as a co-conspirator in the meetNKY embezzlement case. He is charged with cashing more than $1 million in checks from the organization between April and June of last year. His case was bound over to a grand jury (photo by Mark Hansel).
Keith Tasher, who was arrested in the Bahamas earlier this month, and extradited from Miami last week, had his case bound over to the grand jury.
A Kenton County Grand Jury indicted former meetNKY finance director Bridget Johnson in January on charges of 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.
Court records indicate more than $4 million was embezzled from meetNKY over the course of several months in 2018.
According to testimony from Covington Police Investigator Eric Higgins, Johnson thought she was sending money to a man she had become romantically involved with.
Higgins began his testimony by recounting the information contained in the warrant for Tasher’s arrest, much of which he said originated from conversations with Johnson.
It including evidence that Tasher received and cashed 13 checks drawn on the account of the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau (NKYCVB) totaling $1,125,000 between April and July of last year. Higgins also confirmed that his investigation determined Johnson sent all 13 checks to Tasher.
The indictment indicates Tasher kept $409,289.16 and sent the rest to China.
Higgins said Johnson also stated that she has never met Tasher and there was no lawful reason for Tasher to receive NKYCVB funds. He said Johnson sent the funds to Tasher for him to forward to another co-conspirator.
Following the statement from Higgins, Dan Schubert, a public defender representing Tasher at Tuesday’s proceeding, questioned the detective about his findings.
Johnson
While there is still a lot about the investigation into the alleged conspiracy that has not been made public, Tuesday’s proceedings brought some additional information to light.
Schubert asked why Johnson would send the checks to Tasher, someone she did not know.
“It’s all part of a greater scheme,” Higgins said. “She thought she was sending money to her boyfriend. I think she sent (checks) to a total of maybe eight different people through the course of this time period.”
Schubert asked if Johnson knew she was communicating with eight people and how she contacted them.
“She was fully aware of her actions,” Higgins said. “There are text messages (and) I received some of (the information) through email and phone conversations.”
Higgins also said he had bank records from all of the people that received funds through transactions facilitated by Johnson, as well as some surveillance videos.
“I actually spoke to Mr. Tasher in his store in New York City, but yeah, I do have some bank surveillance video of him cashing the checks,” Tasher said. “I think there might be two or three.”
Tasher is listed as the owner of three All Star Wireless stores in New York.
Tasher’s Kenton County Detention Center booking photo (provided).
During his conversation with Tasher, Higgins said the store owner offered an explanation of his role in the scheme.
“He stated that he won the small business lottery,” Higgins said. “Someone from, he said, the Northern Kentucky Convention Center gave him a piece of paper with a name of Bridget, something else, it wasn’t Johnson.”
Editor’s note: The NKYCVB and the Northern Kentucky Convention Center are intertwined due to their similar missions, but 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.
Higgins said Tasher told him that he had a conversation with someone who told him they were trying to do business in China.
“They couldn’t do it directly, so they wanted to go through him,” is how Higgins said Tasher explained it to him. “When he received this money he was supposed to keep a small fee…I can’t remember what (amount) he said, but it was smaller than the actual $409,289.16…and send the rest to China.”
Tasher conducted the transactions using several bank accounts.
“He was switching from both his business and personal account, from three different banks,” Higgins said.
District Judge Ann Ruttle determined there was enough evidence to have the case turned over to a grand jury.
Schubert asked for a reduction in the $1 million bond Tasher is currently being held on, to $10,000.
Sanders
Ruttle made a partly indistinguishable comment about a private jet, and said since she did not set the bond, she was not going to lower it.
The NKYCVB declined comment on Tuesday’s proceedings.
Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders was not in court Tuesday and did not want to comment on proceedings, but he did respond to questions about the case.
“We’ll be looking to get this case through the grand jury pretty expeditiously so we can catch it up with Miss Johnson’s case and join them if necessary,” Sanders said. ”Miss Johnson’s case has been pending for several months now and we want to bring resolution to her charges both for her sake and the sake of the taxpayers that are out a significant sum of money.”
Sanders said Johnson was a victim herself, right up until the time she started stealing from her employer. There is evidence that Johnson was personally taken in by the scheme, before the meetNKY funds started being drained.
“She had lost a considerable sum of money, but her motivation wasn’t entirely romantic,” Sanders said. “She had been suckered for a substantial amount of her own personal funds. Then she began stealing from her employer with the hopes that, by continuing to invest money, she could somehow eventually get her money and her employer’s money back.”
There is still a substantial amount of money, believed to be as much as $3 million, unaccounted for, and several other possible co-conspirators are still at large, so the case remains open and active.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
