Auditor subpoenas financial accounts of state agency

BILOXI — The State Auditor’s Office has served a subpoena for access to two key Mississippi Department of Marine Resources’ financial accounts. That’s according to a published report.

Assistant Attorney General Sandy Chesnut tells The Sun Herald the auditor wants record from an account that holds disaster-relief money and from the Rigs to Reefs account.

The Sun Herald says it was denied access to the accounts by Chesnut, who said the documents had been subpoenaed and were now the subject of a criminal investigation.

The state auditor’s investigation reportedly began in October when the agency seized various records of the MDMR.

The agency is also the focus of a federal audit by the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees some of the federal funding the MDMR manages.