A Florida woman arrested on theft and bribery charges Thursday became the second person this week to be implicated in an alleged long-running kickback scheme involving a Maine corrections official.
Melanie Ann High, 67, of Fort Lauderdale, was charged Thursday with one count each of theft and bribery in official and political matters. She is accused of using kickbacks to induce Gerald E. Merrill, deputy superintendent at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston and Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport, to make repeated purchases from companies she controlled, according to court records.
High was being held without bail Friday at a jail in Broward County, Florida, according to jail records.
The charges against Merrill and High indicate he spent more than $10,000 over the last 10 years but the actual amount of money transferred is believed to be far higher. State Auditor Matthew Dunlap and Danna Hayes, the attorney general’s spokesperson, declined Friday to say how much money Merrill is accused of spending.
It was unclear when High was going to be brought to Maine to face charges, or whether she had a lawyer. Merrill, 61, made his initial court appearance via Zoom on Wednesday. He was being held at the Penobscot County Jail on bail after his arrest Tuesday but is no longer listed in custody.
Dunlap said the Maine attorney general’s criminal investigation stemmed from a broader inquiry by his office of routine transactions using procurement cards, or P-cards, which are a modern equivalent of petty cash. They allow state employees to make small purchases quickly and easily without needing to go through an invoice or bidding process.
An auditor discovered that Merrill made an excessive number of P-card purchases within $100 of the spending limit of $4,999, Dunlap told the Press Herald Wednesday.
Gerald E. Merrill Photo courtesy of Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office
“You had a repeated number of high-end transactions for a similar purpose over a decreasing interval of time,” Dunlap said. “When we started seeing evidence of some of these transactions maybe being repetitive, perhaps a little dodgy, that’s when we brought in the (attorney general’s office) … and we sort of just turned it over to them.”
Before handing the case over to prosecutors, Dunlap said, his team looked up the websites of the companies that appeared repeatedly on Merrill’s P-card statements. Though he’s not an expert in shell companies, he said, some elements of the websites did arouse suspicion.
The websites of two of the companies named in the criminal complaint against Merrill, Southern Source Industries and Starlite Supplies, list the same phone number and Oakland Park, Florida, address. Both websites feature the same photos and list an almost identical set of cleaning and industrial products but seemingly provided no way to buy anything.
High is the registered agent for both companies, according to the Florida Secretary of State’s Office.
The complaint names three other companies: A to Z Chemical Supply, ACS Solutions, and Service Industries. Although those businesses are registered to other agents, according to the Florida Secretary of State’s Office, the criminal complaint against High says she controlled all five companies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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