MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An investigation into $144,000 in charges racked up on the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s executive credit card. It’s your taxpayer money, and it’s not the only spending being called into question.
WREG Investigators have spent months digging deeper into MATA’s finances after it announced a $60 million deficit.
Friday, the MATA board received a new bombshell by Interim CEO John Lewis.
Lewis works for the outside firm TransPro hired to take a closer look at the transit authority’s operations. Lewis claims he’s now found questionable spending.
“Office supplies, parking, dues and subscriptions. Substantial amount in travel and meeting expenses. Rent for this building and space,” Lewis said.
He said there were other charges on the executive’s American Express credit card.
WREG Investigators reported on some of the expenses Lewis revealed, like the millions spent when the executive office moved to a downtown high-rise, and another half-million spent on a Grizzlies sponsorship and a suite at FedExForum.
“This includes concerts, Disney on Ice and whatever might come into it. Anything, but the playoffs,” then-CEO Gary Rosenfeld stated at the May 2023 board meeting when the expense was approved.
New reports reveal MATA spent another $20,000 in purchases during those games.
Lewis says other expenses he’s now questioning are $7,000 spent at Best Buy, $10,000 at Amazon, $10,000 on party equipment and $10,000 more on entertainment items like the spa and Massage on the Go. Also, a $1,200 purchase at Montblanc, which makes designer ballpoint pens.
Through the Tennessee Records Act, WREG Investigators requested the credit card statements more than six months ago, as well as other public records to help us understand how MATA has spent your tax dollars.
Their attorney told us we would get the info in “due course.” As of January, our requests for an update have gone unanswered.
Memphis officials and the Tennessee Comptroller’s office have been made aware of the spending, and the board was informed Mauldin was placed on leave pending what comes from it.
“So I knew that there were some financial challenges, but honestly, I had no idea, the ride that we were about to be on,” Bacarra Mauldin said during an interview in November. “We’re doing an expense review, and we are still do that until this day. We’re looking at travel. We’re looking at supplies and equipment.”
Mauldin held top roles at MATA since 2021. She stepped into the interim CEO role last year. When TransPro took over this year, she became the Deputy CEO.
Mauldin’s attorney Vanecia Belser Kimbrow said Friday that Mauldin has been on medical leave, and while the credit card is in her name, it’s “managed by the entire administration.” She assured us more will come out and assured us the expenses are “business-related.”
“Those expenses were 100% reimbursed as related to the spa treatment by CIGNA insurance as part of the company’s health and wellness plan,” Kimbrow said.
Lewis also told the board Friday they have found what he called “deliberate deception” by MATA’s leadership.
As of late April, he reported one out of every five routes on the schedule didn’t actually exist. He said services were cut without a board vote, but MATA still kept the old schedule up.
“The public was deliberately misled,” he said.
