Bunceton school board member pleads guilty to scamming district out of $385k

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Bunceton school board member pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court for her role in an alleged scheme that defrauded the school district out of $385,000.

Ashley Benny, 41, waived her right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty to wire fraud, according to a Thursday press release from the Department of Justice. Benny is currently listed as a school board member on the district’s website, but was described specifically by the DOJ as the treasurer in 2019.

She was asked to research “alternative investment options for the school district’s unallocated savings.” Court documents and the press release say she learned of a “supposedly lucrative overseas ‘standby letter of credit’ investment that carried no risk of loss.” Court documents say they were promised a 10% guaranteed rate of return over the next year.

The district went into a memorandum of understanding with a company called “AgFluent,” which was owned by a friend of Benny’s and that person’s boyfriend, court documents say. The district agreed to invest $385,000.

“The agreement further provided that the district’s $385,000 investment would—in addition to being held safely in an IOLTA account—be secured by [the boyfriend’s] 2019 hay crop,” court document say.

“The investment was a scam, and the school district was defrauded out of $233,000 wired overseas by AgFluent,” the press release says. “Contrary to AgFluent’s agreement with the school board, Benny then helped transfer the remaining school district investment funds to pay various other entities and expenses owed by a co-conspirator, including nearly $60,000 for the purchase of two semi-trucks and a $10,000 escrow payment on a failed land purchase deal.”

Benny was ordered to pay all of the money back and faces up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.