A former West Baton Rouge Parish Chamber of Commerce employee pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to forging $29,000 in checks.
Marie Anais Brand, of Gross Tete, was charged with theft and fraud in 2021 after investigators with the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office said she forged 38 checks and deposited the money into her bank accounts between June 2019 and October 2020.
Brand served in a leadership role as the Chamber of Commerce’s events coordinator, where she had access to the chamber’s finances.
In one case, Brand wrote a check out to herself and said it was to pay an internet bill, which is paid through a direct deposit, according to arrest records. Another instance included checks Brand wrote for events that were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investigators wrote in an affidavit that Brand also forged board members’ signatures to conceal her actions by making it appear the payments were authorized.
She pleaded guilty during a jury trial Tuesday morning and is awaiting sentencing.
“The state of Louisiana will be actively pursuing that she spend time in jail for financial crimes,” said District Attorney Tony Clayton.
Brand resigned after she was arrested at the Mexico-Texas border on drug smuggling charges in October 2020. Authorities in Texas said they found more than 1,564 pills of the prescription painkiller Tramadol in bottles and inside the lining of her purse.
Online court records in Hidalgo County, Texas, at the time did not show any charges filed against Brand in the incident.
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