Lydia's owner faces federal charges
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 24, 2015 1:46 PM
The owner of a local alterations shop located near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base faces federal charges that could result in her being sentenced to 35 years in prison.
The federal indictment alleges that Deborah Carr Battle, of Goldsboro, fraudulently charged hundreds of thousands of dollars to a government credit card for services she did not render.
U.S. States Attorney's Office public information officer Don Connelly said Ms. Battle is not in custody and will have to be arraigned prior to a trial date being set.
"She is not a flight risk, so no, she is not in custody at this time," Connelly said.
Ms. Battle owns and operates Lydia's Alterations at 204 S. Berkeley Blvd., which sits approximately 200 feet from Seymour Johnson.
Beginning in 2011, the business began taking orders for services to deploying airmen's uniforms. Payment was made via a government credit card assigned to a civilian employee with the base's 4th Mission Support Group Comptroller's Office.
Over the course of the next few years, the employee, referred to only as "T.W." in the indictment, engaged in several business transactions with Ms. Battle.
But rather than go to the store to receive the invoices and to physically swipe the credit card, T.W. gave Ms. Battle the credit card number, allowing her the ability to process payments to herself for services rendered, for which she would later send the invoices.
It was not until July 2014, when T.W. took an extended leave of absence, that the alleged fraudulent charges came to light.
A new employee, referred to in the indictment as "Employee B," took over the Lydia's Alterations account. The credit card given to Ms. Battle by T.W. was canceled and another card was issued to Employee B.
When Employee B tried to transact business with Ms. Battle, she asked for the credit card number and was denied. She became combative, according to the indictment.
Employee B went to Ms. Battle's store several times to conduct business, but found the business closed.
After several phone calls and attempts to coordinate transactions in person with Ms. Battle, Employee B eventually gave in and gave the credit card number to Ms. Battle to process payment for services rendered.
At the end of 2014, however, when reconciling the account, Employee B noticed several more charges than should have been made, considering fewer and fewer service people were deploying at that time.
Employee B canceled the card and closed the account, then contacted Ms. Battle to demand reconciliation of the charges. Ms. Battle sent invoices to explain the charges, but they provided little information and did not match the amounts charged, the indictment alleges.
After an investigation conducted by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations it was concluded that Ms. Battle charged more than $250,000 to government credit cards for services she did not render, that she provided fictitious invoices and that she obstructed a criminal investigation.
Charges to the credit card in 2013 amounted to $79,128. In 2014, $56,449 was charged prior to July. After July, charges to the second credit card issued reached $9,629. Each of the charges made to the credit card were in increments of $2,999 or less in accordance with the card's maximum purchase limit of $3,000 per transaction and $225,000 per year, according to the indictment.
A federal grand jury indicted Ms. Battle on Wednesday on charges of three counts of theft of government monies, obstruction of agency proceedings and falsification of documents in connection with a federal proceeding.
If convicted, Ms. Battle could face 10 years on count one -- and be fined $250,000 for each of the three counts -- as well as five years for count two and 20 years on count three.
No trial date has been set. U.S. Attorney Evan Rikhye is assigned to prosecute the case.
"Her arraignment is set for the November session of federal court," Connelly said.