The former president of the Vacherie Volunteer Fire Department converted $56,500 in department money to his personal use over a nearly two-year period, paying personal loans and phone bills, depositing thousands of dollars in cash into his personal accounts and taking reimbursements twice for the same unauthorized trip, a new investigative audit says.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office says former president Jacolby Octave, who was also a full-time parish emergency manager, may have violated state fraud, theft or malfeasance in office statutes with his handling of the volunteer department funds that stem from local property tax revenue, fundraisers and donations.
The auditors say Octave shifted $58,916 in certificates of deposits to department accounts between May 5, 2017, and Nov. 18, 2018, though the fire board only authorized one of the seven transfers, worth $9,989.
Then, without board approval, Octave issued or negotiated 37 checks totaling $54,006 that he either made payable to himself or to "cash."
After those transactions, auditors found simultaneous deposits into his personal accounts of some of the money, but the majority of the checks, worth $40,219, were cashed. Some of the checks had the signatures of other fire board members who disputed they signed them.
Another $2,494 in department funds were used to make Octave's personal loan payments and personal AT&T bill payments through 13 electronic payments directly from the department account.
Louisiana State Police had notified the state auditors about questions regarding his handling of department money in December.
In a statement Monday, troopers said they recently received the audit and have it "under review."
St. James Parish government officials said they turned over records after state auditors informed them about "potential irregularities" and the terminated the employee in question — Octave — after receiving the auditors' findings.
"St. James Parish will be working with the various Fire Departments in reviewing present procedures and tighten control measures to avoid this from being repeated," the parish statement says. "St. James Parish will be consulting with our legal counsel to consider actions towards restitution.”
Amber Shepard, parish spokeswoman, said Octave had been with the parish a little more than a year, hired as an emergency preparedness planner on March 5, 2018. Before that, Octave had worked part time at the parish Sheriff's Office between June 2011 and March 5, 2018. He stepped down to join the parish, deputies said.
The audit recommends an evaluation of the department's business operations, new written policies and more detailed invoices, and Vacherie fire officials say they have already take several of those steps.
Octave, who became president in March 2016, was removed March 18 after the state Auditor's Office began its investigation. In attempting to explain his actions to auditors, Octave gave the state auditors varying stories.
Initially, he told auditors that some of the checks he cashed were used to pay undocumented workers who didn't want to go through the parish vendor process, though he later said that the cash was being held at the fire department.
However, he denied using department funds for his personal use and, though he acknowledged that the deposits into his personal bank account "did not look good," he was "adamant the funds deposited in his personal accounts were not department funds," the investigative audit says.
He said the money was for departmental expenses he was owed or went into his accounts because he was uncomfortable having that much department cash at the fire station.
Octave told auditors, "He wanted to run the Department the way that he wanted to run it, and he did not feel it was necessary to discuss things with the Board since he did the majority of the work for the Department," the audit says.
Under the fire board's policy then, expenditures of more than $500 needed board approval. Octave's listed number rang unanswered Monday, and he hadn't responded to an automated voice message converted from a text message to that number.
The shift of CDs happened about a year and a half after the parish had taken over direct payment of operating expenses for the department, instead of reimbursing it as the parish had in the past.
But, Octave maintained his own checkbook, although department bylaws require the board treasurer to have the only checkbook and the treasurer didn't know he had it.
Among the 37 checks Octave wrote, about half to the money spent were purportedly for hard assets, though it ended up going to his personal benefit instead.
Auditors noted one instance on Nov. 20, 2018, in which Octave wrote an $8,709 department check for cash, with the note that it was going to an air-conditioner unit.
But the audit noted the bulk of that money, $8,000, was deposited in Octave's personal bank accounts on the same day he wrote the department check. Then five days later, Octave wrote a $5,000 check from his personal account for a down payment on a person vehicle.
At the next fire board meeting, Octave told fellow board members that no checks had been issued from the department checking account and the balance had remained the same since the last meeting, the audit says. By following February, parish government paid directly for new air-conditioning units for the department.
Octave originally told auditors that he used that money to pay an undocumented worker named "Julio" to work on an air-conditioner, but when auditors asked for his information, Octave told them that "Julio" had moved back home to Mexico.
Later, Octave said that his notes on the checks may be inaccurate and that the check involved with the air-conditioner was cashed and kept it at the fire department.
Attempting to explain another $9,000 in checks, Octave said he routinely paid undocumented workers to wash fire trucks and make repairs, but about $4,575 was deposited as cash into his personal bank account on the same days he cashed those department checks.
Octave also wrote another 11 checks for $8,760 for travel expenses, although he was not approved to spend department money on travel and board members say signatures on six of the checks were falsified.
The auditors also found parish government reimbursed Octave for some of those trips. Auditors say he wrote himself four checks worth $4,040 for a 2017 trip to the Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but also received $1,993 in reimbursement from the parish government.
When asked why he sought travel reimbursement from parish government, Octave told auditors the trip notes on the department checks were inaccurate.
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