A former ISU employee has been arrested on charges that she used a university credit card to make approximately $16,000 in personal purchases, police said.

Brenda Lynne Flugstad, 38, of Boone, was taken into custody after turning herself in Thursday. ISU Police had issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of forgery and fraudulent criminal acts (Credit Cards), a class D felony.

The penalty for an offense can result in a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine between $1,000 to $10,000.

A report issued by ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger said Flugstad was arrested without incident at 8 a.m. Thursday and was taken to the Story County Jail. She was held on a bond of $13,000.

Flugstad formerly worked as a secretary in the management department of the College of Business.

A complaint from Iowa State’s purchasing office on June 25 led police to investigate Flugstad’s employee’s history with the school. Purchasing department records indicated she had made at least $10,000 in unauthorized purchases between March 2003 and May 2004 using an ISU charge card.

A search of Flugstad’s home June 29 resulted in the seizure of several items purchased with the school’s credit card, including vacuum and steam cleaners, CD/DVDs, video games and other items, according to police reports.

Police also found numerous quantities and types of vinyl signage material, which Flugstad appeared to be using to run a business out of her home. These, too, were purchased using university credit cards, police said.

Flugstad’s computers, records and receipts were seized by police as well.

Further investigation led authorities to determine that Flugstad covered her fraudulent purchases by creating false receipts, police said.

ISU spokesman John McCarroll said while the abuse of the university’s credit card system was unfortunate, the charges brought against Flugstad show the benefit of the way the system is administered.

“Certainly, the charge is misuse of a university credit card, which is inappropriate,” he said. “The good news is, the system has worked. In the process of investigating this account, they were able to spot red flags, and as a result of that, more investigation followed and charges were filed.”

Iowa State’s credit card system is intended to allow for “small-dollar” purchases by authorized faculty or staff of up to $2,000. Currently, there are approximately 1,700 cardholders within the system, and officials from the purchasing department say roughly $13 million a year is spent through the cards, spread out over 68,000 transactions.

Mary Brooks, assistant director of purchasing, said that each cardholder is required to fill out and sign an application that must also be signed by the person’s department head and the dean or director of the person’s unit. Cardholders are also required to receive training in the proper usage of the card.

Flugstad, she said, would have to have gone through the proper channels to receive a card.

Purchases are regulated through a series of checks and balances, Brooks said, in which all expenditures are analyzed with reviews and periodic audits. It was this system of oversight, she said, that allowed her to first see Flugstad’s spending.

It was Brooks who, in May, first found the irregularities in Flugstad’s spending. Although she declined to detail exactly how she found the unauthorized purchases, Brooks said it was an irregularity in the type of merchant used in the purchasing that led to the in-house audit.

“It took so long [to recognize the irregularities] because she was able to alter receipts,” Brooks said. “What identified her was an irregularity in the type of merchant that was being utilized. It was a merchant that the university does not normally conduct business with.”

Ten minutes after the problems were found, Brooks said, she called Flugstad and informed her that her card was being canceled pending further auditing.

It was the system, she said, and the people administering it, that allowed Flugstad’s alleged misspending to be caught.

“If we didn’t have such a system in place, it’s very likely these things could go unnoticed,” Brooks said. “But we feel that it’s our obligation to protect the public trust, so we wanted to have the very best system in place before we authorized the cards.”

Brooks said she felt no thrill at the apprehension of Flugstad.

“I don’t know if it’s congratulations,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that this happened, but at least we have a method of finding these things.”