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ST. LOUIS, MO. -- The following is a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in St. Louis, Missouri:

The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that Lou Ann Allred entered a plea of guilty to the embezzlement of approximately $120,000 of Callao City funds.

According to court documents, as the long time Callao City Clerk, Allred received cash payments for city services and instead of depositing those cash funds into Callao’s B & L Bank accounts, embezzled the funds for her own personal purposes.  Allred issued the city customers cash receipts, but did not deposit the money into the city’s B & L Bank accounts.   On one and more occasions Allred wrote City of Callao checks to herself from the Callao B & L Bank accounts without the knowledge and authority of the City of Callao and forged the signature of the Callao Mayor on those unauthorized checks.  She then either cashed those checks or deposited them into her own personal bank account.   The total amount of money through Allred’s fraudulent conduct is approximately $120,000 from 2004 through 2008.

Allred, 60, of Callao, MO, pleaded guilty to one felony count of mail fraud this morning before United States District Judge Henry E. Autrey.

She now faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison, or a fine of up to $250,000, when she is sentenced on August 16, 2010.

This case was investigated by the Macon County Prosecuting Attorney, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Kirksville Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Hal Goldsmith is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.