Public Affairs
Contact: Marc Kovac
press@ohioauditor.gov

Columbus – A former secretary for the Painesville City Local School District has been indicted on theft-related charges after investigators determined she pocketed more than $10,000 in receipts, Auditor of State Keith Faber announced Wednesday.

Brenda Kalina faces two felony counts of theft in office and one felony count of grand theft, under an indictment handed down by the Lake County Grand Jury. A secret indictment was filed in the case in late July and was recently unsealed following her arrest and arraignment.

The Painesville City LSD Treasurer contacted the Auditor of State’s Special Investigations Unit in August 2021 concerning the suspected theft of Red Raider Preschool tuition fees by Kalina.

SIU reviewed transactions between September 2019 and July 2021 and determined Kalina improperly withdrew $4,600 from the school’s credit union account and failed to deposit an additional $6,323 in cash tuition payments.

Accounting records were altered to hide the activities.

Since 2019, the Special Investigations Unit has assisted in 85 convictions resulting in more than $2.7 million in restitution (Map of SIU Convictions Since January 2019: https://ohioauditor.gov/fraud/convictions_map.html). The team receives hundreds of tips of suspected fraud annually. Tips can be submitted anonymously online or via SIU’s fraud hotline at 1-866-FRAUD-OH (1-866-372-8364).

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio is responsible for auditing more than 6,000 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Keith Faber, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies, and promotes transparency in government.