Gary Keith Atchley, a former Olympian Village alderman, has been indicted on five counts of wire fraud for allegedly embezzling $185,000 from the small town several miles east of De Soto, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri reported.
Atchley, who served as an alderman from 2013 to 2016, is alleged to have bought approximately $58,000 in personal merchandise using pre-authorized debit transactions and writing $127,000 in checks for his own benefit, which were not authorized by the Olympian Village government.
The indictment alleges Atchley, 53, between March 2013 and December 2016, wrote checks from the Olympian Village account “to pay personal expenses, including making out checks to cash, which he then negotiated, by writing checks directly to himself and by using checks drawn on the Olympian Village account in order to pay for merchandise at local retailers using pre-authorized debit transactions.”
At no time was he authorized as a “signatory” of the account, the indictment said.
David Berry, a current Olympian Village alderman, said Atchley had free reign over the city’s funds until a wave of people stepped up to fill municipal public offices a couple of years ago.
“He was running the whole city just by himself,” Berry said. “He cleaned us out. Back a year ago, there was a fight to stay above water.”
Berry said Atchley took money from all of the municipal accounts.
“He got the taxes, the road improvement fund, the sewer fund – everything we had,” Berry said.
If convicted, Atchley faces up to 20 years in prison, a fine of more than $250,000 or both on each count. Restitution is also mandatory.
“This is a double blow for Olympian Village,” said Special Agent in Charge Richard Quinn of the FBI St. Louis Division. “The financial loss alone is devastating for a small community. The addition of public corruption causes an even deeper impact when people lose trust in their government.”
The case was investigated by the FBI St. Louis Division and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Gwen Carroll is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Atchley is out on $10,000 unsecured bond, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
Olympian Village is an incorporated subdivision. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2016 that the town had 760 residents.