CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  A federal grand jury in Charleston has indicted a North Carolina woman for her part in a conspiracy that defrauded the West Virginia Auditor's office of about $2 million.

In an eight-page indictment unsealed Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged Angella Muthoni Chegge-Kraszeski, 33, of Raleigh, with obtaining a false South African passport in the name of Christina Ann Clay, then using the false identity to create four dummy corporations in North Carolina.

Two of the bogus businesses had names similar to entities doing business with West Virginia's government, including Deloite Consulting Corporation and Unisyss Corporation, according to the indictment. The actual business names are Deloitte Consulting LLP and Unisys Corporation.

Chegge-Kraszeski allegedly set up bank accounts under the similar but incorrect business names at TCF Bank in Minneapolis. Using those names, she then contacted West Virginia Auditor Glen Gainer's office and had the funds diverted to the Minnesota accounts, the indictment alleges.

Chegge-Kraszeski and co-conspirators known and unknown to the grand jury then began funneling money to banks in Nairobi, Kenya, according to the indictment.

Gainer's office discovered the missing money in the beginning of May. According to the indictment, the first payment of $919,916 intended for Deloitte Consulting for services provided to the state Department of Health and Human Resources was misdirected on March 19.

Over the next six weeks, Chegge-Kraszeski and her accomplices allegedly steered 12 payments totaling $913,373.52 to banks in Kenya, the indictment charges.

The indictment focuses only on the monies diverted using the fake Deloite account, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, head of the economic crimes section.

Chegge-Kraszeski was previously taken into custody on state charges and had her initial appearance in court in Raleigh earlier today, he said. U.S. Marshals are transporting her to West Virginia, where she will be arraigned on the current charges.

Goodwin declined to comment on whether others had been taken into custody or were facing additional charges.

The U.S. Secret Service and the West Virginia Commission on Special Investigations are handling the investigation, he said.

State Auditor Glen Gainer said he was "elated" at the fast response of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Secret Services once the corporate identity theft was discovered.

"I'm very pleased that there has been at least one arrest in this case, and we look forward to others," he said.

Since the initial fraud was discovered, the state's payment process has been reviewed both internally and by an outside expert, he said.

"We are very diligently and carefully scrutinizing every electronic payment because of this," he said. "We are erring on the side of caution."

Since the fraud was uncovered locally, authorities have identified at least three other banking institutions, five corporations and nine other states besides West Virginia that may have been affected, Gainer said. He declined to be more specific, saying investigators have asked him not to disclose any additional information.

According to a news release from the Florida Department of Financial Services, members of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation in arrested Chegge-Kraszeski mid-May for allegedly trying to defraud Florida with a similar scheme.

Using an alias, Chegge-Kraszeski allegedly tried to divert millions in state funds by pretending to be a legitimate state vendor, the release states.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.