A woman is now in police custody after being accused of funnelling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Memphis non-profit straight into her own pocket.
It all kicked off when the interim executive director of the charity reported the issue to Memphis police on 28 April. He’d discovered some suspicious activity during an internal audit and flagged it immediately.
According to the report, the finger is pointing squarely at Roshaunda Burwell, who just so happened to be the person overseeing the organisation’s finances. Not exactly ideal, according to WREG.
What the audit allegedly revealed was pretty shocking. Over more than three years—from January 2022 up to April 2025—Burwell had been using the charity’s First Horizon bank account to pay off her credit cards and even cover her MLGW utility bills. All of this, police say, was done without any sort of authorisation.
So, while the charity thought their funds were going towards good causes, those donations may have actually been keeping someone’s lights on at home and paying off a few shopping sprees.
It’s still unclear exactly how much money went missing, but sources close to the investigation suggest it’s no small sum. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars that were supposed to be helping the local community.
What’s worse is that Burwell was in a position of trust. As the person in charge of the non-profit’s finances, she would have had access to all the right systems and enough authority to move funds around without raising immediate red flags. That kind of control can make it far too easy for this sort of thing to go unnoticed—until it suddenly doesn’t.
Once the audit results came in, the non-profit’s leadership wasted no time in taking action. The report was filed, the police got involved, and Burwell was taken into custody shortly afterwards.
Authorities haven’t released a full breakdown of the spending or how it all went unnoticed for so long, but you can bet that more details will surface as the investigation continues.
Memphis police are expected to examine transaction records and cross-reference payment histories to work out just how far the alleged misuse goes. They’ll also be trying to determine whether anyone else was aware of or involved in the activity.
It’s a sobering reminder of how vulnerable even well-meaning organisations can be if internal controls aren’t airtight. When the person holding the purse strings is the one helping themselves to the cash, it becomes a serious problem fast.
For now, the charity is left trying to pick up the pieces, figure out what’s left of its funds and restore confidence both inside and outside the organisation.