State police say the former secretary/treasurer of a Penns Valley township accused of stealing nearly $533,000 used a municipal credit card for personal expenses for more than five years and gave fraudulent budget reports to cover her tracks, according to court documents.
A criminal complaint details how Pamela D. Hackenburg, 55, of Union County, allegedly pilfered Gregg Township funds and used her total control of the township’s financial accounts to hide the spending, which included up to $20,000 a month for an online sportsbook.
Hackenburg, who worked as the township’s secretary/treasurer from January 2019 until she was suspended without pay in May 2024, was arrested Wednesday on four felony theft charges.
According to the complaint, Hackenburg was responsible for 14 township financial accounts at First National Bank and was the only person with password access to them. She kept her office locked and never allowed anyone else inside, police wrote.
Accountants hired by the township in May to perform an audit discovered Hackenburg had used the township credit card for $532,747.76 in unauthorized personal charges between March 2019 and May 2024, according to the complaint.
A significant amount of the spending was on DraftKings, where police said starting in January 2023 she would max out her township credit card, then max out another employee’s card without his knowledge.
Hackenburg used various township funds to pay off the credit card balance, according to the complaint. One of those was a $500,000 loan for a road project that was never started and was not to be used. She is accused of at some points taking up to $20,000 at a time from that fund to pay off the credit card.
When Hackenburg reported budgets to the township Board of Supervisors, she used spreadsheets with fraudulent data to conceal the theft, police wrote.
The unauthorized charges came to light when another township employee, who had a township credit card for maintenance expenses, unexpectedly received a card statement, which was normally sent to Hackenburg. After opening it and seeing the DraftKings charges, he contacted the manager of First National Bank, who discovered similar previous charges on the account, according to the complaint.
The accountants hired for the audit found Hackenburg’s office to be “a mess,” with piles of papers, old undeposited signed checks and no filing system, police wrote. They determined that prior to Hackenburg’s hiring, the township books were reconciled and up-to-date, but immediate discrepancies appeared after she started in the position.
After her arraignment on Wednesday, Hackenburg was released on $500,000 unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 11.
Supervisor Ben Haupt said in August that the board had not previously seen the township’s bank statements, but now is “seeing everything.” Supervisor Charles Stover also said at the time that the board would issue a full report on steps the township has taken.
The township acknowledged Hackenburg’s arrest Wednesday on its website and wrote “more details to follow later.”
Gregg Township’s Board of Supervisors is next scheduled to meet on Dec. 12.
