A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

Former meetNKY finance director sentenced to 15 years for her role in embezzlement of $4 million


By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor

Bridget Johnson, who pleaded guilty  to three felony charges in connection with the embezzlement of more than $4 million from the NKY Convention and Visitors Bureau, also known as meetNKY, was sentenced Tuesday.

Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe sentenced Johnson to 15 years in prison for Complicity to Theft (>$1,000,000), 15 years for Abuse of Public Trust (>$100,000) and 10 years for Unlawful Access to a Computer 1st Degree.

Former meetNKY finance director Bridget Johnson leaves a Kenton Circuit Courtroom Tuesday after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for her role in embezzling $4 million from the NKY Convention and Visitors Bureau (photo by Mark Hansel).

Investigators determined that Johnson, who was finance director for meetNKY at the time of the crimes, sent the money to someone she fell in love with online.

Summe said it is unfortunate that Johnson, 59, was duped, but that does not excuse her actions.

“This always sound trite, but I’m always amazed what people do for quote, unquote, love,” Summe said. “Then they want to come back and say it was for love, but you know it when you’re doing it.”

The sentences will run concurrently, which means Johnson could serve 15 years, but will be eligible for parole after three years. She will also have to pay restitution, to the extent that she can.

As has been previously reported  Johnson did not benefit financially from the embezzlement and the money was believed to have been funneled to China, so it likely will not be recovered.

Investigators were able to recover about $10,000 after the scam was exposed and meetNKY has received $500,000 from a bonding agency, but the rest of the money is almost certainly gone for good.

Johnson’s attorney, Bill Gallagher, said his client started out as the victim of online scammers, has cooperated in the investigation and is truly remorseful.

Gallagher said her actions were completely out of character.

“She’s absolutely law abiding, she worked a long time for her employer, raised two children (and) got them to where they needed to go,” Gallagher said. “Then it blew up; it blew up in a moment in time when she was probably severely depressed. She’s prepared to face the judgement, whatever that is.”

Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders said when he and now-retired Covington Police Investigator Eric Higgins started questioning Johnson, he determined there were two possible conclusions.

Sanders

“She was either a criminal mastermind or perhaps the foolish and most gullible defendant I have ever met in my life,” Sanders said.

He quickly determined she was no mastermind.

“The longer this case has gone on and the more I’ve learned about it and the more other individuals that we have investigated in relation to this theft, the more I’m convinced that she’s foolish and gullible,” Sanders said. “I, in some fashion, would have great sympathy for her, because she’s such a pathetic defendant and she has no prior criminal history. The bottom line is, stealing over $4 million is just mind-boggling and it’s the largest theft I’ve ever seen come through this courthouse and it’s all taxpayer dollars.”

The only somewhat comparable case Sanders could recall in Kenton County was the embezzlement of $850,000 by former City of Covington Finance Director Bob Due.

Due was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014 and ordered to pay restitution. He served less than four years.

While Due profited from his crime at the time, it appears Johnson did not.

“She didn’t get a single penny out of this,” Gallagher said after the sentencing. “She completely cashed out her retirement, she went into hock, $30,000 in credit card bills, she comes out with all of her belongings in a storage locker now.”

It’s believed Johnson sent about $250,000 of her own money to her online paramour before she started embezzling from meetNKY.

Sanders said until she started stealing from her employer, Johnson would have been one of the biggest crime victims in Kenton County history.

“Instead, she’s turned herself into one of the biggest thiefs we’ve ever seen,” Sanders said. “Given the fact that taxpayers in Kentucky are out in excess of $4 million I think a sentence of 15 years is fair.”

Gallagher said he knew Johnson because their children were friends.

“She reached out to me when she was in a time of trouble and I thought I could help,” Gallagher said. “It brings tears to me just thinking about what happened to her and what’s happened to people who weren’t expecting to lose money.”

In addition to ruining her career and being sentenced to prison, Gallagher said Johnson’s crimes have also alienated some friends and family members, including her children.

He tried to shed some light on how things could go so wrong so quickly for a trusted, 20-year meetNKY employee.

“Her marriage had broken up, her kids had moved on to college,” Gallagher said. “She tried several times to get a serious relationship and failed, went online and met a persona…and that’s what a lot of people are doing. I think in a very low part of her life she got herself emotionally attached to someone she thought loved her.”

Sanders said he is sure that he will be criticized by some in the community for not requesting a stiffer penalty, or consecutive sentencing, which would have required Johnson to serve separate time on each of the charges.

He said, taking everything into consideration, he thought the recommendation sent a message that you just can’t do this.

“You can’t steal this much money, without a doubt, and you certainly can’t steal this much money from taxpayers,” Sanders said. “She’s paying a substantial price, but this was a very unusual case. If she had somehow pocketed the $4 million, I think the number we would have asked for would have gone significantly up.”

Sanders said, beyond the bonding money, meetNKY will be lucky to see a fraction of what they are out.

Bray

Tim Bray, meetNKY | Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau Board Chair issued the following statement regarding Tuesday’s proceedings and the investigation:

“The entire board and staff of meetNKY would first like to thank and recognize the job done by the Covington Police Department and Commonwealth’s Attorney office in prosecuting this crime. The past year for meetNKY has been very tumultuous and challenging dealing with the betrayal and crime of a long time employee.

The organization has continued to enhance its internal controls to further the mission of meetNKY. 

While dealing with the sad outcomes of this crime, the bureau has also stayed laser focused on our mission of providing a measurable economic impact on the Northern Kentucky economy, providing best of class services for visitors to our region and celebrating another record breaking year of results in our three counties.”

Changes in Financial/Operating Policies as a result of this crime:

The Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau has made aggressive, transformative changes to the bureau’s financial and operating policies.

•The CVB has conducted a full forensic audit and is implementing recommendations on financial safeguards from the audit.

•The CVB terminated its relationship with the past financial audit company and has secured a new financial audit organization.

•The CVB has completed an audit with the new financial audit organization and is implementing all policies and procedures related to cash and expense management.

•The CVB has secured a new financial institution.

•The CVB has added new board level and Executive Committee level positions that have career experience in financial management.

•The CVB is beginning the process of outsourcing day to day accounting functions to add another layer of separation of duties inside the organization. Reconciliation will be performed internally and validated via Executive Committee approval monthly.

•Most importantly, the CVB has continued to meet and exceed goals and expectations in fulfilling its mission of promoting and managing the dynamic destination of NKY and our region by growing our visitor economy through increased visitor expenditures.

Tasher

Sanders said the investigation is ongoing and other suspects have been identified. One, Keith Tasher of New York, was arrested in the Bahamas  in July and extradited to Kenton County.

He has been charged as a co-conspirator, has been identified as an alleged middle man in the embezzlement scheme, and is awaiting trial. 

Dan Schubert, an attorney in the Department of Public Advocacy has been assigned to represent Tasher in recent court appearances.

What that means is that someone who has been charged in a conspiracy that cost taxpayers more than $4 million is being defended at taxpayer expense.

It should be pointed out that Tasher has not yet been convicted of a crime in this conspiracy and public advocates are expected to defend clients whose cases are assigned to them.

Sanders said the actual criminal mastermind in the meetNKY embezzlement is a professional and will probably do it again.

“There is no way you get this sophisticated and this skilled at conning people without having done this before and if you are that good at it, you are probably going to do it again,” Sanders said. “Hopefully his scams will never come back to Kenton County and hopefully he gets caught.”

Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com


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3 Comments

  1. Mike Rabe says:

    How does the Convention Center lose over 4 million dollars and nobody get fired? Shouldn’t Eric Summe and the whole board of directors be given the boot. Public agencies are always crying we need more money, and it turns out they were missing over 4 million and didn’t notice? Don’t get me wrong, I am not accusing anybody else at the Convention Center with a crime, just complete incompetence. Who ever does the hiring down there should terminate those at the top immediately. If this was a private business or corporation, they would have been fired as soon as this travesty came to light. The fact that it is on the tax payers dime, nothing will happen. Sounds to me like the Convention Center may have been receiving to much tax payer money to start with. I mean, If they didn’t miss 4 million bucks, they didn’t need it in the first place. Right?

    • Mark Hansel says:

      Editor’s note: As has been reported several times, the Northern Kentucky Convention Center and meet NKY|The Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau are not the same thing. While they do work closely together on some things, the Northern Kentucky Convention Center is a separate entity. Ms. Johnson worked for the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

  2. Gentry says:

    Seems to be a re-occurring theme with non-profits. spend spend spend, dont pay taxes, any of the higher ups in them dip to the bottom of the jar and take big money right out of them. Like the other non-profit scandals where CEOs somehow “steal” tens of millions in the bigger cases. How? Jesus only knows. real tax reform should be applying taxes to these organizations. why does I have to pay taxes and put in the hours and barely scrape by and all these non-profit folks eat bon bons all day at networking events and take off entire weeks for the holidays and become millionaires while doing it. if anyone in a for-profit job creating business somehow steals $100 in any given week they’d be on the street in a second. What a time to be alive ladies and gents.

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