Jennifer Elizabeth Meehan Attorney charged with defrauding Gamma Phi Beta Sorority House

Poor ethics and illegal behaviors are not necessarily committed between strangers. Quite often, it is those closest that we trust without question or proper due-diligence. Take the recent case of lawyer, Jennifer Elizabeth Meehan who was arrested on the charges associated with defrauding a sorority of nearly a half-million dollars.

The case, as reported by Anna Lee of Greenvillenews.com (July 1, 2015) in an article entitled: “Upstate attorney charged with defrauding sorority house,” states:

In an eight-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury last week, Jennifer Elizabeth Meehan, 38, of Sandy Springs, was charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering…Meehan was (allegedly) responsible for furnishing the newly constructed Gamma Phi Beta sorority house at the University of Alabama when she submitted false invoices for furniture and equipment and received payment for them without ever providing the goods.”

Before we go any further, we must note that Meehan had seemingly sparkling credentials prior to volunteering to help the sorority manage its affairs in regard to furnishing its rather impressive sorority house.

Meehan is not only a lawyer, and a University of Alabama graduate, she is also a former member of Gamma Phi Beta – and as we noted, she was seemingly helping her old sorority out of the goodness of her heart. However, Meehan’s heart was not so pure. As the sorority started to buy furnishings, it appears as though Ms. Meehan made the decision to tack on unique service charges:

“The invoice amounts were either inflated, reflecting a higher price than was actually paid, or were completely fraudulent and submitted by fictitious companies Meehan is alleged to have created between September 2013 and March 2015, according to the indictment.

Meehan would then deposit the checks into her bank account to use for her personal expenditures, the indictment alleges.”

Indeed, there is an organization named: Greek Resource Services that serves as an intermediary source of funding for sororities and fraternities and they supply the funds for entities such as Gamma Phi Beta to purchase durable goods such as furniture. In addition to directly billing Greek Resource Services $95,000, Ms. Meehan also used her fictitious companies to bill the lending agency an additional $375,000.

Due Diligence Might Have Helped

Ms. Meehan is looking at a $250,000 fine and up to 30 years in jail if she is convicted. Naturally, her law degree will become a worthless piece of paper.

How do characters such as this come into our lives? She seemingly had all of the proper credentials, but are credentials enough? In fact, there may be times when credentials are simply used as the price of admission; where we are so accepting that someone is “like us,” that we never give thought to the fact that they are nothing like us.

Ms. Meehan is an opportunist. She saw an opportunity to take advantage of young women who might have been “scared” to question or confront her. After all, she was a practicing lawyer; a grown woman – and a member of “our tribe;” our sorority and therefore, our sister.

Nevertheless, and given all of the computer skills among the women in the sorority, someone might have done a bit of research and seen that The Supreme Court of South Carolina denied Ms. Meehan reciprocally in the state of Tennessee “for submitting a false resume to a potential employer, according to court records.” That would have been enough to raise the first red flag.

Whether Meehan liked it or not, an oversight committee could have been created to work with her to review all of the expenditures. The University of Alabama has exceptionally fine accounting and business programs. Undoubtedly, members of the sorority either had the expertise or knew of someone who had the expertise to help them oversee the lawyer.

It is difficult to know when the pattern first started. Perhaps the first few purchases were absolutely ethical and above-board, but then Ms. Meehan could have sensed that no one was watching and no one cared. It is the same dynamic that occurs when we allow politicians to go unchecked or to allow unethical individuals to practice poor healthcare or junk science.

For Ms. Meehan, there must have been some type of justification that had taken hold. We know she used the money for personal and undoubtedly self-serving interests (I doubt she needed the funds for a serious medical condition). She might defend herself by saying she intended to repay every cent she took; she might deny she had any ill-intent. It makes little difference; the outcome is the same.

Far better for the sorority to have chosen an ethical person and a person of character than an “image” who was never there.