Federal Charges say Ex-Cox Employee Allegedly Stole 900K from Company

Joysha Flucker, a former Cox employee, has been arraigned on charges in an indictment that a federal grand jury returned on May 21 for allegedly stealing over $900,000 from Cox Communications, a media announcement said.

The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Sandy Springs Police Department. Cox Communications is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, whose headquarters are located in the Perimeter area. 

U.S. Attorney on the Charges

“Those who shamelessly steal from their employer should expect to be held accountable,” said U.S. Attorney
Sally Quillian Yates. “Companies must be able to trust their employees, especially when those employees are entrusted with handling money. The charges against these defendants reflect that they violated the law as well as their employer’s confidence.”

According to Yates, the charges and other information presented in court, Flucker, 36, of Decatur, and Sakia Allen, 38, of Jonesboro, previously worked for Cox Communications, where they had access to the company’s electronic invoicing system that tracked the company’s payments to various third parties. 

The charges say, Flucker and Allen manipulated the electronic invoicing system so that Cox Communications would issue duplicate payments to the third parties. However, the duplicate payments were directed into bank accounts under the control of the defendants. Cox Communications suffered losses of at least $943,865.46. 

Flucker was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge Russell G. Vineyard today on the charges and was detained. Allen previously entered a plea of guilty to one count of wire fraud on July 25.

The indictment charges the defendants with multiple counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.  Each wire fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and the conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison.  Each count also carries a fine of up to $250,000. 

The United States is also seeking the forfeiture of all funds derived from the scheme.  The United States previously forfeited a house and luxury automobiles as proceeds of the alleged offense.