Mother-Daughter Team Plead Guilty to Fraud

Gainesville -- Two women face sentencing after pleading guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal nutrition funds.

50-year old Molly Smith and her daughter 29-year old Maykie Blevins used a non-profit organization, which Smith ran in Lula, to get federal monies.

Smith was the head of the Georgia Nutrition Program - a non-profit group that sponsors day care centers in North Carolina and Georgia. The group uses federal monies to reimburse daycare centers for meals served to children from low-income families.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said the pair submitted false information to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in order to receive $770,000 in funding.

Smith and her daughter then used the money to go on a spending spree - purchasing property, expensive cars, and jewelry. At tax time, they altered the checks to make it look like they were legitimate GNP expenses, which they wrote off.

Both could get up to five years in prison and fines up to $100,000 for tax fraud. Smith could get an additional fine of $250,000 on federal fraud charges.