Today in the city of Orange, Long Beach Police arrested 59-year-old and former Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) Bureau clerk Jongluck “Lucky” Mutrais for accusations of misappropriating some $251,000 in public funds. The ACS is responsible for the intake of stray and surrendered animals, field and kennel operations, animal abuse investigations, pet licensing, low-cost pet care services, and other related operations; Mutrais handled pet licensing.

During the fiscal year of 2009 and 2010, ACS began updating their systems to better track account transactions — more specifically descrepancies in deposited revenues that was attributed to animal licensing and cashier functions, which were discovered from October 2009 to August of 2010. The discrepancy: $253,150 missing.

The Long Beach Police department as well as the Office of the City Auditor was contacted by ACS, each leading independent investigations. With the latter, an audit was performed, having been completed in October of last year but was unable to be released to the public due to the investigation; it confirmed that over a quarter-million dollars was missing. 

City Auditor Laura Doud explained that the reconciliation process, in combination with a lack of supervision and proper segregation of duties, is how the money went amissing. Reconciliation is an accounting process that compares two sets of records — let’s say in this case, the balances of two different accounts — to make sure the numbers are in agreement. It is presumed in the investigation and charges that Suspect Mutrais, given the lack of supervisory insight, was able to easily reconcile accounts while simultaneously handling the deposit. In the short definition of embezzlement, if she had control over X amount of money, she could report that Account A received X-Y, that X-Y was deposited into Account B, and walk away with amount Y.

This conversion aspect explains the charges of embezzlement (different than larceny) and misappropriation of public funds. Mutrais is also being charged with altering or falsifying an account and filing false tax returns. If convicted of all the charges, she faces up to nine years in state prison. She had worked for ACS for 21 years and resigned in the day after her suspected string of embezzlement ended in 2010.

Anyone who may have information regarding this case is urged to contact Long Beach Police Department Forgery/Fraud Detail at (562) 570-7330. Anonymous tips may be submitted via text or web by visiting www.tipsoft.com. 

The full report with a detailed explanation of the City Auditor’s recommendations and management comments can be viewed on the City Auditor’s website, www.CityAuditorLauraDoud.com.