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Former treasurer of Sons of the American Legion misappropriated nearly $12K from organization

Posted at 4:02 PM, Oct 22, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-22 18:02:01-04

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    Adams County, PA (WPMT) — A Fairfield man is accused of misappropriating nearly $12,000 from the Sons of the American Legion (SAL), whom he was the treasurer of.

Jaime Zapata, 39, was charged Monday with access device fraud, receiving stolen property and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, according to the Adams County District Attorney’s Office.

The alleged theft from SAL, which is sponsored by Gettysburg American Legion Post #202, occurred between August 2015 and August 2017.

A financial audit of SAL revealed that $11,462.30 was misappropriated by Zapata via unauthorized ATM withdrawals, payments on personal credit cards and credit card transactions, financial shortages from dues in 2016 and 2017, and an $800 laptop, the criminal complaint says. Nearly $10,000 of that amount is attributed to Zapata’s alleged use of the SAL credit card.

During an interview with authorities, Zapata admitted to misusing the credit card at various locations including, but not limited to, fast-food chains/restaurants (McDonald’s, Royal Farms, La Bella, Sheetz and Wendy’s), Walmart, Kleffel’s (clothing store), Laundromat, Solo Hill Car Wash and TouchTunes (phone app), according to the criminal complaint.

“Jaime Zapata could not produce any receipts for the purchases and his monthly SAL Financial Reports did not account for the purchases,” Gettysburg Police Investigator Dennis Bevenour wrote in the criminal complaint.

Zapata has been released on $15,000 unsecured bail, the DA’s Office says.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 31.

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