City of Morton, Washington
Outcome
Tamara Clevenger, former City Clerk/Treasurer of Morton, Washington, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for stealing $937,584 from the small city over eight years through unauthorized ATM withdrawals, pocketing customer cash payments, and writing city checks to herself recorded as vendor payments — the fraud was uncovered by a Washington State Auditor audit.
Details
City of Morton, Washington — City Clerk/Treasurer Embezzlement (2013–2021)
Outcome: Tamara "Tammy" Clevenger, former City Clerk/Treasurer of Morton, Washington, pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud for stealing $937,584 from the city over eight years through unauthorized ATM withdrawals, pocketing customer cash payments, and writing fraudulent city checks to herself recorded as vendor payments — a scheme only uncovered by a 2024 Washington State Auditor audit.
Clevenger served as the Clerk/Treasurer for the City of Morton — a small Lewis County, Washington town — from 2012 to 2022. Between 2013 and 2021, she embezzled $937,584 through three primary methods: making unauthorized ATM withdrawals from city accounts, intercepting and pocketing cash payments made by customers that she did not deposit at the bank, and writing city checks payable to herself and recording them in the city's accounting system as vendor payments.
The fraud spanned eight years without detection until 2024, when a Washington State Auditor examination uncovered the embezzlement. Clevenger was charged federally with wire fraud and pleaded guilty in federal court. She was scheduled for sentencing on July 7, 2025 before U.S. District Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright.
Primary Source: Former Morton, Washington City Clerk pleads guilty to wire fraud for lengthy embezzlement scheme
How Crucible Prevents This
Clevenger served as both City Clerk (record-keeper) and Treasurer (fund custodian) in a city small enough that no second person monitored either function. Crucible's segregation-of-duties hook immediately flags any municipal configuration where the same individual holds both the clerk and treasurer roles, requiring at least council-level independent review of financial statements. A cash receipts reconciliation hook comparing customer payments recorded in the city's system against bank deposit records would have detected the pattern of cash pocketing within the first billing cycle. Crucible's ATM-withdrawal alert for government-account debit cards flags any withdrawal above $50 from a city operating account.
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