A 16-count charge from a federal grand jury on Friday says that a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri, stole $300,000 from an anti-crime group and spent it on himself.
The charge sheet was made public on Friday after 46-year-old Aaron McKie was nabbed. McKie is accused of 14 counts of wire theft and 2 counts of laundering money.
There were 24 years that he worked as a police officer in Kansas City. Most of that time was spent in the Crime Free Multi-Housing Section.
News from the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri says that from 2009 to 2023, he was president of Mid-America Crime Free, Inc. The nonprofit was set up to help push anti-crime programs and train people who worked in rental housing.
It says that McKie started stealing from donors in July 2009 and kept doing it until October 2023. Most of the money for the anti-crime group came from Fairways 4 Fuzz, an annual golf event.
It has been possible to find more than 100 donors.
McKie is said to have used the nonprofit group’s bank account for his own purposes.
The money was spent in the following ways:
- $125,989 on trips, activities, meals, and drinks
- $57,278 in shopping and style
- Putting $41,040 into personal accounts
- Having $36,874 in cash
- $27,279 pre-2016
- $23,298 in living costs
- $8,299 in personal taxes to pay
The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department said something about McKie right after the charges were revealed.
As soon as our department learned in September 2023 that one of our cops might have been committing fraud, an investigation was launched right away. The claimed fraud involved the financial dealings of a charity run by a police officer that helped with the Crime Free Multi-Housing program, the statement said. “We put the officer involved on suspension right away until the investigation was over.” After the investigation was over, our agents sent the results to the U.S. Attorney’s office so they could be looked over.
