New records detail Pa. township secretary’s alleged half-million-dollar heist. How did sports betting, trips, and more go unnoticed?

GREGG TOWNSHIP — Pamela Hackenburg knew her way around QuickBooks and had an associate’s degree in finance and accounting. This made her the top candidate in 2019 when she was hired to be this rural township’s new secretary and treasurer.

It also allegedly helped her perpetrate a massive scam spanning years.

Hackenburg stands accused of stealing almost $533,000 in public dollars, beginning just a few months after she took the job until earlier this year. By the time Gregg Township in Centre County sent outside accountants to clean out her locked office, it was a complete “mess,” with piles of papers and uncashed checks strewn everywhere, according to a charging document.

She’s been charged by Pennsylvania State Police with theft, receiving stolen property, identity theft, and access device fraud — all felonies. Hackenburg, who did not respond to requests for comment, has not entered a plea. The preliminary hearing in the state’s case against her has been continued until Jan. 2 to allow her time to find an attorney.

Now, for the first time, a Spotlight PA investigation reveals in meticulous detail how the alleged scheme ballooned from a few small purchases into a slush fund for sports betting, and how it was hidden from unwitting local officials under the thinnest of veils.

The bulk of the alleged theft was perpetrated using township credit cards that Hackenburg paid off with taxpayer money. Records obtained by Spotlight PA show transactions on DraftKings, a sports betting platform, totaled $322,185. Money spent via Venmo reached $149,335.25. Other personal purchases, like spending at restaurants, resorts, clothing stores, and more, climbed to $48,893.42.

In fact, township supervisors were never more than one look at credit card statements away from discovering the unauthorized spending. Suspicion was raised only when one of those statements was accidentally sent to another employee.

“We didn’t see those. We didn’t see credit card statements,” Gregg Township Supervisor Ben Haupt said in an August public meeting, adding that has changed. “We’re seeing everything. OK?”

The case is a cautionary tale for Pennsylvania’s more than 2,500 local governments and the taxpayers who entrust them with their money. Many municipalities are similarly run by a small number of public employees who can exercise unchecked authority over public finances.

“Sometimes there needs to be a look in the mirror of … ‘We were charged [to govern] with oversight, and this occurred under our watch,’” said Scott Koman, a certified fraud examiner.

Pat Leary, a Gregg Township supervisor from 2005 to 2013, told Spotlight PA that the current board has shown a lack of diligence.

“Ignorance is no excuse,” he said.

Unfettered access, nonexistent oversight

Hackenburg made her first allegedly fraudulent charge on her township credit card on March 6, 2019, just months after starting as Gregg Township’s secretary and treasurer — $68.75 on Amazon.

Records obtained by Spotlight PA, including a third-party review of the township’s finances, show she spent $846.60 on personal purchases — such as groceries and pet supplies — that month.

In June 2019, she allegedly spent more than $500 in Florida, visiting Gatorland in Orlando and paying for a resort near Disney World.

Patricia Patrick, a professor who teaches forensic accounting and auditing at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, said in a statement to Spotlight PA that this behavior could indicate that Hackenburg is a “predatory” fraudster, rather than an accidental one.

“An accidental fraudster would wait until they got themselves into financial difficulties before stealing,” Patrick said. “A predator will scope out the weaknesses of the organization and begin stealing immediately.”

Hackenburg was the only person to have password access to the township’s First National Bank accounts, and bank statements were normally mailed to her, according to State Police.

With unfettered access and practically nonexistent oversight, Hackenburg allegedly continued to spend — on nail services, wine and spirits, clothing, dog grooming, restaurants, and dentistry, among others — for the next two years.

Records show the spending intensified in August 2021 while also becoming more opaque. That’s when Hackenburg allegedly began to send money on Venmo using her township credit card. The transaction amounts varied and were sometimes repetitive: a trickling of $1,030, $1,545, and $2,060 quietly left township coffers and traveled to unknown destinations.

In early 2022, a new card was issued under the township account to “Gregg Twp Supervisors.” In the ensuing months, nearly $50,000 in Venmo transactions were put on that card, until it was closed at the end of the year, according to a Spotlight PA analysis.

All told, $149,335.25 in township credit card transactions were spent on Venmo between 2019 and 2024, Spotlight PA found. It’s not clear where this money went: The transactions were not mentioned by State Police in charging documents.

The Gregg Township Board of Supervisors declined to comment on whether the “Gregg Twp Supervisors” card was properly authorized. In fact, Supervisors Charles Stover, Ben Haupt, and Vicky Vanada all declined to be interviewed for this story or answer questions in writing.

A significant turning point came on Jan. 9, 2023, when Hackenburg’s card was used for $100 on DraftKings — a national sportsbook and daily fantasy sports betting provider.

In a nine-day spree, Hackenburg allegedly made 73 payments for DraftKings totaling $7,040, according to Spotlight PA’s analysis. In the next billing cycle, 109 payments totaled $10,400. The next month, 80 payments totaled $10,270.

Those transactions easily reached the spending limit of Hackenburg’s card. On paper, the credit line was for $10,000, but in practice the cards allowed purchases up to $11,000 each month. Hackenburg allegedly turned to another township credit card at her disposal — issued to Jim Smith, emergency coordinator for Gregg Township.

Smith routinely put maintenance supplies on his township card, but unbeknownst to him, Hackenburg was also allegedly using it to bet on DraftKings. Every month, both cards would reach the limit. In two instances, a third card — belonging to township roadmaster Brandon Ripka, who has consistently used it for fuel — was used to gamble, when both other cards maxed out.

“This case is a prime example of why you cannot trust anyone with your money,” Patrick said. Township supervisors “must maintain oversight of the municipality’s financial assets to avoid becoming a victim of theft.”

State Police say the massive gambling spending continued until this spring, when Smith inadvertently received a credit card statement in the mail, and a statement full of “DRAFTKINGS” finally exposed a scheme that ran smoothly for five years.

Matthew Harris / The Daily Item

Hiding fraudulent transactions

State Police allege that in addition to Hackenburg exerting total control over Gregg Township’s bank accounts and bookkeeping, she fabricated data presented to the board of supervisors.

Doug Bierly, a former Gregg Township supervisor who served from 1999 to 2021 and helped hire Hackenburg, told Spotlight PA he was not allowed access to QuickBooks, where detailed financial reports were generated and kept. He also didn’t remember seeing bank statements. He said that he wished he could have had better access.

In the accounting world, segregation of duties — or simply, not letting a person with access to money be the only one maintaining financial records — is key to preventing fraud, said Scott Koman, a certified fraud examiner and director of forensic accounting services at Boyer & Ritter. If supervisors or someone else at the township had reviewed bank statements on a regular basis, the alleged theft could have been detected early and easily, he told Spotlight PA.

Koman said the board should have looked at source documents too, not just aggregates that the secretary prepared. “If nobody is checking … and the fraudster is aware that nobody’s going to fact check what is being presented back to the actual source document, it’s all too easy for them to hide $500,000 worth of fraud,” he said.

All municipalities, regardless of their size, should have multiple copies of bank statements sent to different people within the organization, and they should receive statements directly and unopened to prevent falsification, Patrick told Spotlight PA.

Additionally, Patrick questioned why auditors missed any indicator of fraud in their annual exams.

Gregg Township has two elected auditors, Thomas Corman and Walter Bailey. They are responsible for reviewing township funds records and submitting an annual financial report to the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Corman declined to speak to Spotlight PA when reached on the phone, and Bailey could not be reached for comment.

Spotlight PA also emailed questions to Gregg Township’s third-party auditor, Christine Zoerner, of Baker Tilly. She did not respond by publication time.

Koman also questioned whether auditors should have noticed discrepancies, but cautioned that there’s a big difference between an annual audit and a forensic one.

“The auditor, in performing their audit and preparing their audited financial statements, will disclose that the purpose of their audit is not to detect fraud,” Koman said. He said that’s a widespread misconception that the public and governing members of organizations often share.

In the criminal complaint, State Police said Hackenburg would “hide balances in prior closed years and would hide balances in old or nonexistent job codes.”

In May, after the alleged theft was discovered, Gregg Township placed Hackenburg on unpaid suspension. They also hired John Corman, owner of Integrity Accounting & Tax Services, to comb through the township’s finances during Hackenburg’s tenure to find out just how much had been potentially misappropriated.

That total — tallied from nearly 3,700 fraudulent transactions — was $532,747.67, Corman found.

In addition to the money spent on gambling, Venmo, and other personal purchases, records show that $12,334 in cash for rent or event fees at the Old Gregg School Community and Recreation Center, where the municipal office is located, was recorded but never deposited.

The township pays for a bond policy that covers potential employee theft of up to $700,000, according to a copy Spotlight PA obtained. Gregg Township Solicitor David Gaines said during a November meeting that the board was awaiting the bond company’s decision on how much of the losses it would cover.

Police said Hackenburg used multiple Gregg Township funds, including a restricted road project loan of $500,000, to pay off the enormous balances. The Corman report indicated that she might have repaid township accounts $13,292.35 during her time as the township’s de facto administrator.

‘We were so in the dark’

Bierly, the former supervisor, said he was “floored” when he heard about the criminal charges. He trusted Hackenburg and could not believe “that she would do it.”

He described Hackenburg as very nice. She would bring food for people and decorate the Old Gregg School for the holidays. Other than the occasional bill paid late or tardy filing of meeting minutes, things seemed normal. Bierly said he was “disappointed” that he didn’t know things were so wrong.

Leary, the other former supervisor, was critical of the supervisors who he said allowed the alleged theft to occur.

During Leary’s time on the board, he said, every expense was voted on during public meetings. That the secretary can disburse public dollars without a board vote is “beyond the pale,” he said. He worried that this incident would paint an unfavorable picture of Gregg Township’s governance in the eyes of the state and federal government agencies when grant decisions are made.

In its Dec. 12 public meeting, the Gregg Township Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to terminate Hackenburg’s employment. Supervisor Ben Haupt also read off a list of changes that have been made.

All bank statements and credit card statements are now reviewed regularly by supervisors. All financials are handled at Integrity Accounting & Tax Services during this time. Supervisors and the secretary are required to complete yearly background checks. The monthly credit card limit for all cards is now $1,000. Supervisors are looking for new auditors, and they now have access to the secretary’s computer and files, as well as security footage and the mailbox.

Gregg Township resident Lisa Bierlein thanked supervisors for informing the community of Hackenburg’s arrest during the December meeting and urged them not to consider a plea deal as the victim in the criminal case.

“I know it seems like a pain, and it is a pain. At this point she’s stealing time versus money,” she said. “But it’s very important to, I think, all of us that might have money missing to see this through.”

Back in May and in the aftermath of realizing what had happened, Supervisor Vicky Vanada, whose term started this year, was digging through credit card transactions — likely the first time a supervisor had done so since Hackenburg was hired five years ago.

In an email Spotlight PA obtained, Vanada wrote to Haupt that Hackenburg had used township money for gift cards she sent him and his wife for Christmas of 2022 — a disguised kind gesture. They began to realize, perhaps, nothing was as it seemed.

“It is mind-boggling the differences in the numbers between Pam’s numbers and [accountant Rhonda Sweely’s] numbers,” Vanada wrote in that same email. “We were so in the dark, and this is exactly where she wanted us.”