Hannibal woman facing federal charges

Steven Brown, 49, of Godfrey, Ill., and Teressa Shrum, 33, of Hannibal have been indicted on federal charges of theft of government funds involving the use of Brown’s government issued credit card to pay sham invoices created by Shrum, U.S. Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway announced Monday.
“At this time when the men and women of the armed forces are putting their lives at risk around the world in defense of this country, it is unconscionable that anyone would steal from the defense department,” said Hanaway.
“America’s war fighters deserve the very best to perform their jobs in these difficult times. Individuals who steal from the Department of Defense place personal gain above the needs of our men and women in uniform. The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) will continue to support the Department of Justice in its efforts to uncover corruption and fraud in the federal procurement process,” said Sharon E. Woods, director, DCIS.
According to the indictment, Brown was a civilian employee at the Arnold facility of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense, from 1984 until he was suspended in July 2007.
Part of Brown’s job involved purchasing office and computer supplies, and Brown was issued a government funded credit card, commonly referred to as a P-Card, to make official agency purchases.  In July 2005, Shrum started a company called Infiniti Business Solutions (IBS), with Shrum listing the type of business in city records as “credit card merchant processing.”
The indictment alleges that between February 2007 and the end of July 2007, Shrum and Brown fraudulently used Brown’s Government P-card to steal money from the Government and created false invoices for computer equipment and various supplies that IBS never actually supplied to the government.
Brown and Shrum, were each indicted by a federal grand jury on twenty felony counts of theft of public money.