Longtime embezzlement scheme upended by new oversight, technology

Lonna Carroll's $1.8M paper trail discovered thanks to new DSS surveillance

Advances in technologies used to track financial activity and a new supervisor at the South Dakota Department of Social Services led to the discovery of suspicious charges that a former state employee had made.

That discovery put investigators onto the trail of an alleged embezzlement scheme dating back more than a decade, Attorney General Marty Jackley told reporters Thursday. On Monday, a Hughes County grand jury indicted Lonna Carroll on two charges of felony aggravated grand theft for bilking $1.8 million in funding that came primarily out of federal and state dollars meant to care for foster children.

Carroll, who now lives in Algona, Iowa, is awaiting extradition to South Dakota. Her bond is $50,000.

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