Katrina Robinson Tennessee state senator charged w/ embezzling $600K federal funds to pay for wedding, honeymoon, divorce, travels. Money siphoned off nursing training allocation.
A Tennessee state senator has been charged with embezzling $600,000 in federal funds to pay for her wedding, honeymoon and later divorce — as well as a campaign event, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors on Wednesday.
From 2015 to 2019, state Sen. Katrina Robinson is accused of stealing monies granted to The Healthcare Institute — a company she directed, according to prosecutors.
The money was intended to fund a nurse training program at a vocational school run by Ms. Robinson, – herself a former nurse, but instead was siphoned off to add to her salary, help fund her other businesses and pay personal expenses, among other things according to the complaint.
In addition to covering her wedding costs, Robinson, a Democrat from a Memphis district elected in 2018, is charged with using the funds to pay for her honeymoon and pay legal fees for her divorce, the feds charge.
But there’s more.
Intends to continues serving state senate office with ‘integrity’
With the stolen money the lawmaker also paid for her daughter’s 2016 Jeep Renegade, home improvements, a $500 Louis Vuitton handbag and invested in a snow cone business run by her children, prosecutors and the FBI said.
The money was also used to pay for Ms. Robinson and her family to travel to Jamaica, pay off her personal debt and fund a State Senate campaign event, the complaint continued.
Robinson was charged with theft, embezzlement and wire fraud.
Robinson said she will continue to serve in the state legislature ‘with the same integrity, the same passion that I’ve demonstrated since you’ve elected me to this office.’
‘It is believed that if I were not in the position that I’m in, that if I did not champion the voices, the views and the faces that I represent, that I would not be in this moment right now,’ Robinson said.
Tennessee’s state Senate Democratic Caucus said in a statement Robinson’s legislative work ‘is not in question’ and she ‘deserves the presumption of innocence and due process.’
The case is expected to be presented to a grand jury, the prosecutor’s office said.
If convicted on the charges, Ms. Robinson could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
