The former Executive Director of the Church Point Housing Authority and her accomplice have both pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzling $195,778 from the authority.

U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley says Sarah Robert and Arthur Felix entered the guilty pleas last Monday.

Finley says Robert was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the housing authority, including "submitting invoices and writing checks for outstanding bills, contractor work, and employee payroll."

Court documents show Robert "wrote numerous checks to individuals and/or companies, sometimes without their knowledge, for work that was never done, submitted false invoices to verify these expenses, forged signatures on backs of checks, cashed the checks and converted the money for her personal use."

Robert would write checks to Felix, have him endorse and cash the checks, and then give her a large portion of them. Felix cashed $107,592.78 in checks, but he received little to none of that amount.

Finley says Robert has confesses to having a gambling problem which dates back to 1999.

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