The Oklahoma Beef Council filed a lawsuit yesterday in Oklahoma County against Edmond-based accounting firm Arledge & Associates, P.C. The lawsuit relates to the embezzlement of OBC funds by one of its former employees, Melissa Morton. OBC's management discovered the embezzlement in July 2016, and Melissa Morton pled guilty to charges arising from it in May 2017. Her sentencing date is currently set for December 28, 2017.

The lawsuit alleges that after a thorough investigation, it became clear that Arledge's audit opinions were incorrect and misleading, that Arledge had failed to reasonably and properly perform a risk assessment of OBC, that Arledge employed inadequate and flawed audit planning and testing procedures, and that Arledge failed to perform the audits in accordance with reasonable and applicable auditing standards. The lawsuit seeks to recover all damages caused by Arledge's conduct.

We reached out for comment from the Oklahoma Beef Council and received an email stating “Our statement speaks for its and we likely won’t veer from that given we are dealing with legal matters under advice from Counsel.”