Former Huntington airport official sentenced for theft of federal funds

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A former Huntington Tri-State Airport finance director was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison for theft of federal funds.

The prison sentence for Melissa Sue Hall, 46, of South Point, Ohio, will be followed by three years of supervised release, with the first five months on home detention with electronic monitoring.

U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers imposed the sentence and ordered Hall to pay $49,478.64 in restitution.

According to court records, from September 2017 until Jan. 8, 2021, Hall was responsible for the accounting, depositing and withdrawing of funds from multiple revenue sources, including ATMs and vending machines.

Hall admitted that between May 2020 and Jan. 8, 2021, she stopped depositing the full amounts from these machines into the airport’s bank accounts and that she took money. During this time, the airport received at least $10,000 per year in federal funding, which was deposited in its bank accounts. Hall admitted to diverting nearly $49,500.

United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement.


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