The William C. Anderson Memorial American Legion Post 331 earns money from several different ventures including the game of keno and basketball. The group is able to save tens of thousands of dollars this way and now they have found out that a member has stolen around $70,000.

Bernard L. Easton, age sixty of Waynesville, recently had charges filed against him by the Pulaski Country Prosecuting Attorney. Easton has been accused of embezzling $70,000 from the American Legion which came from the accounts of keno, basketball and the building in 2011.

The statement released by the prosecutor alleged that Easton, who is the finance manager at the establishment, signed for multiple cash withdrawals. The cash withdrawals were taken out of several different accounts it seems to not draw attention to the large withdrawals.

The Legion was surprised to find that Easton had committed such a crime since he has been working the same post as finance manager for the past fifteen years. It was recognized that the money was missing by the First Vice President Don Slater. The Legion discovered that approximately $84,000 was missing from the accounts.

Slater realized the money was missing from the keno account as well as the other accounts and then after reviewing the statements he realized that Easton was taking the money out himself. Easton confessed to taking the money once he was confronted by police and stated that he had taken the money to pay off his gambling debts. Easton had planned on paying the money back from what he won playing scratch-off tickets.


- 2012-02-03