Finance
FBI investigating following termination of finance director
The FBI is investigating the financial dealings of Vance County’s former finance director. County manager Renee Perry confirmed the investigation to WRAL.
Katherine Bigelow was terminated in February after Perry said she misrepresented her qualifications as a CPA, or certified public accountant.
A financial audit found that Bigelow wired more than one million dollars of county funds to a company that she was affiliated with.
“The County also failed to comply with G.S. 159-28(b), which requires at least two signatures on all checks or drafts issued by a government, one being the Finance Officer or properly designated Deputy Finance Officer, and the other by another official of the local government designated for that responsibility by the governing board,” the audit reads.
The report also details several other issues, including overspending, insufficient training and lack of oversight.
“This action was able to go undetected for the time that it did due to a lack of understanding by the staff of the County in their assigned duties, and no cross-training of individuals who would have been able to provide oversight on the transactions,” according to the audit.
The audit findings were presented to the Board of Commissioners June 3 by Thompson Price Scott Adams and company.
“We finally started digging into why we weren’t getting the numbers we wanted…and the timeliness of the numbers…and the accuracy of the numbers. We began to dig into why weren’t the numbers reconciled, why weren’t they timely…which led to our discovery,” the auditor said during the meeting. “Our folks started going, ‘The answers she’s giving us are not what somebody in her position should be giving us.’”
In February, WRAL asked Perry if there have been any inconsistencies with the county’s budget, given Bigelow’s removal. Perry said there were no inconsistencies with the budget at the time.
During the June 3 meeting, the auditor said he brought those concerns to the previous county manager. Perry and other commissioners pressed him during the meeting, saying he should have relayed those concerns to her when she assumed her position in November 2023.
“We should have contacted Ms. Renee; I’m not disputing that,” the auditor said. “When she came on board, by the end of November, we should have said we need to have a conversation… Maybe I was just totally focused on getting data and not contacting management, which I will assume that responsibility.”
Another commissioner questioned the auditor about their responsibility to identify the financial issues sooner.
“Y’all been doing this since 2019, and y’all are just finding this now for 2023. Do y’all hold yourself any account for what’s going on?” they asked.
“Internally, we have done some looking. We think we did everything correctly. It’s unfortunate, but the reality is, a financial audit is not traditionally designed to pick up fraud,” the auditor said.
WRAL asked how the county is making changes to prevent a similar occurrence.
“To prevent in the future, we have internal controls in place that allow for dual signature on wire transactions. We are also working on an overhaul of our financial policies and procedures,” Perry responded via email.
The county has 60 days to provide a plan to fix the issues presented in the audit.
Bigelow previously served as the finance director since 2019. Perry also said Bigelow has died. The cause of death is unclear.
Finance
Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help
A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.
The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.
This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.
She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.
Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.
Finance
UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.
The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”
The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.
Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.
The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted. Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.
The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.
Finance
Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.
The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.
The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.
Audit contract details
Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.
“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.
Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.
“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.
New finance director position
The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.
“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.
Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.
Closed session
The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.
Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.
-
Minneapolis, MN3 minutes agoI-394 traffic shift between Minneapolis and St. Louis Park starts on Wednesday
-
Indianapolis, IN6 minutes agoIndiana officials call for action after 2 children die in retention ponds
-
Pittsburg, PA11 minutes agoFayette County man facing 1,000+ charges related to animal cruelty, neglect
-
Augusta, GA18 minutes agoTextron plans split that could spin off Augusta’s E‑Z‑GO | Exclusive
-
Washington, D.C21 minutes agoDC is second riskiest city for driving, Allstate says
-
Cleveland, OH26 minutes ago
Rachelle M. Hale Obituary Jul 3, 2026 – Slone and Co. Funeral Directors
-
Austin, TX33 minutes agoTexas Stock Exchange launches in Dallas, big implications for Austin start-ups
-
Alabama36 minutes agoAlabama adds commitment from in-state linebacker to 2028 class