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The Drifting Bag That Blew Open a Hydroelectric Heist · Heist Masterminds

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The drifting bag that blew open. A hydroelectric heist. A
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: retired schoolteacher's morning bird photograph captured an industrial courier bag
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  Speaker 1: from Merrow Run Hydroelectric Station washing ashore, 700 meters across
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  Speaker 1: open water, containing $ 11, 420 in banded petty cash and two
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  Speaker 1: official receipts. How did that bag travel four days without
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: anyone noticing? a missing cash reserve, who benefited from a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: hole in oversight that let money vanish in plain sight.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: In this episode, we tell the sequence of events that
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: followed Kathleen Smith's discovery and the state financial crimes inquiry
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: that unfolded, outlining the gaps in auditing, custody, and access
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  Speaker 1: that the investigators probed to answer the central question, where
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: did the money go and how was it covered up? Person,
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  Speaker 1: Kathleen Smith. Location, Merrow Run Cattail Bank. Approximately 700 meters
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  Speaker 1: from Merrow Run Hydroelectric Station. Date, July 9, 2011. Bag found.
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  Speaker 1: Bag drifted July 5-9. Bag drifted July 5-9. 2011 person,
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  Speaker 1: Nancy Taylor, State Financial Crimes Investigator. 24 years old with
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  Speaker 1: 11 months on the job. Amount, $ 11, 420 in banded petty cash. $ 11, 420.
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  Speaker 1: The courier bag belonged to Merrow Run and was registered
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  Speaker 1: to the station's rear loading area. The bag drifted across
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  Speaker 1: open water for four days, July 5-9, before washing ashore
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  Speaker 1: where Kathleen Smith found it at 6.47 a.m. on July 9.
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  Speaker 1: Inside the sealed bag were $ 11, 420 in banded petty cash
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  Speaker 1: and two paper receipts bearing Merrow Run operational markings. Merrow
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  Speaker 1: Run operated with fewer than 60 full-time employees in a
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  Speaker 1: petty cash lockbox with a ceiling of $ 30, 000. Audits showed
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: six consecutive reconciliations passed through Devereaux Associates. with a 17-day
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: gap between rotating auditors that left the petty cash reserve unreviewed.