Oakland Co. Woman Steals $89K From Downriver Elementary School: Feds

WYANDOTTE, MI — A West Bloomfield woman and former Wyandotte Elementary School Principal pleaded guilty last week to stealing more than $89,000 from the school, according to federal officials.

Krizia Allen, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of theft from a federally funded program Friday. Her sentencing date is scheduled for Oct. 10. She faces up to 10 years in prison.

Officials said while serving as the principal of Garfield Elementary School in Wyandotte, Allen stole $89,312 of public-school funds between June 2018 and February 2023.

Officials said Allen stole the money from the school using various methods. One method was that she used a corporate entity that provided no goods or services to the school to transfer over $24,000 directly to her personal bank accounts, according to federal officials.

Allen then used the stolen money to make rent payments, purchase food and make ATM withdrawals, according to federal officials.

Allen also repeatedly used a school credit card entrusted to her for official school purposes to buy thousands of dollars' worth of personal purchases on Amazon, including for digital gift cards for use at Nordstrom, Foot Locker and Old Navy, according to federal officials.

To hide the personal purchases, Allen created false Amazon orders identifying school-related items for submission to the school’s finance department to justify the purchases, according to federal officials.

Finally, Allen used the school credit card to transfer over $50,000 from the school’s PayPal account and her own PayPal account, according to federal officials.

During the same time period, Allen made over $50,000 in debit card transactions and withdrawals from her PayPal account for purely personal uses, including CashApp and ATM cash withdrawals, rent payments and DoorDash purchases, according to federal officials.

To justify the regular fund transfers from the school’s PayPal account into her personal PayPal account, Allen created and submitted more false business invoices and receipts to the school’s finance department, which identified apparent school-related purchases that never occurred, according to federal officials.

After learning of the fraud, school officials confronted and fired Allen in February 2023, according to federal officials.

Later that same day, Allen used the Internet to search phrases such as "embezzlement" and "minimum for fraud," according to federal officials.

"Krizia Allen stole tens of thousands of dollars of public funds intended to benefit its students. Every dollar Ms. Allen misappropriated for her own personal gain deprived the students and teachers of Garfield Elementary of the financial resources needed to ensure that each child at Garfield received a proper education," United States Attorney Dawn Ison said.