When TikToker Bailey Clark (@baileyclark03) was 17 years old, her mom went to federal prison. During her early high school years, Bailey’s mom had been working for a national insurance agency.
She worked for the vice president of a company across one region of the United States.
The VP was responsible for the insurance coverage of about five or six states. At the time, Bailey’s mom was the only employee. She was a receptionist or administrative assistant.
She was doing well at her job, so she got a promotion. By then, they had hired another receptionist. Part of the job description required traveling to conventions/events for work. Her boss was very generous on these work trips.
“My dad would go on the trips with them, and I would hear when they got home about the dinners they would be buying,” said Bailey.
“Thousand-dollar bottles of wine and just no expense spared for these trips.”
Leading up to these events, her mom’s boss would tell her to use the company credit card to buy new clothes. However, Bailey’s mom has a history of making poor financial decisions.
After her boss started giving her access to the company card, she started taking liberties with the card. She made a lot of inappropriate purchases that her boss did not know about.
Over the years, she had gastric bypass surgery and a chest enhancement surgery, paid for with the company card. At this point, she was in her early thirties.
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When Bailey was a teenager, she wanted to earn some extra money, so she would help put together pamphlets for her mom’s work.
She was making around $10 an hour. Her time working there gave her a little bit of insight into office operations.
One time, her mom’s boss bought their family an aboveground pool as a bonus for her mom. Bailey knows that was an approved purchase because her mom’s boss had asked her how she was enjoying the pool.
“Long story short, my mom also bought a lot of other things that I don’t think were blessed by him,” said Bailey.
“We got all new carpet in our house, new furniture, new curtains. She had a lot of new clothes that were not necessarily for trips they were going on.”
“From what I heard, at some point in time, her boss’s wife saw the American Express card and saw the pool charge on there and asked her husband what the pool charge was, and he said that he had no idea what it was.”
Bailey believes that this caused the wife to look more deeply into the purchase history, leading her to uncover a bunch of other charges and expenses.
So, her mom’s boss had two choices: take some accountability for the situation or act like he had no idea what was going on.
He went with the latter, which prompted an investigation from the insurance company. They pursued charges, and FBI agents came to Bailey’s house to question everyone. The whole court case was a very long process, and her mom ended up going to federal prison.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
