Records: CMPD lieutenant, charged with taking $1,600, said it was a mosque donation
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police lieutenant conspired with his wife to take $1,600 from her old employer after she was fired, court filings allege.
To do it, the couple used a company credit card, a small business app and a mosque, the records say.
Lt. Warith Muhammad, 47, has been charged by CMPD with financial card fraud and felony conspiracy. He’s on unpaid administrative leave pending an investigation, CMPD spokesperson Mike Allinger said Monday.
The department said the charges are not tied to Muhammad’s police work.
In a separate case, another CMPD officer, Henry Chapman, was charged by his department with embezzlement last month, after he was alleged to have pocketed $900 from a suspect. That case is also pending.
What affidavits, warrants say
Muhammad’s wife, Debbie Muhammad, was fired from her job at a Charlotte salon and spa in April 2023, according to a police affidavit.
The spa’s owner reported Debbie Muhammad used a J.P. Morgan Chase credit card issued to her for work after she was fired, the affidavit says.
A transaction history reportedly showed $1,600 paid through the Square app — an app for small businesses — “showing in the name” of a local mosque the couple attended and where Warith Muhammad served as treasurer. The next day, he wrote his wife a $1,600 check, according to the affidavit.
When Warith Muhammad got a phone notification that the spa disputed the $1,600 charge, he advised that it was a donation to the mosque, and coached his wife to tell Square that “she is the authorized user of the card in case she (was) contacted by them about the transaction,” police said in their affidavit.
Police executed numerous search warrants on the Muhammads.
Police said they learned Debbie Muhammad accessed the company’s computer system from her home after she was fired. She changed hours employees worked, inventory balances, gift card amounts and other information, according to her arrest warrant.
And she texted others to ask what she should “mess up” in the system, according to an affidavit.
The business’ owner told police that the mess-up cost over $150,000.
Debbie Muhammad has been charged with financial card theft, financial card fraud, conspiracy and accessing computers.
The Muhammads made first appearances in court earlier this month. They’re scheduled for a probable cause hearing on May 8.
“Unfortunately, all too often civil disputes end up in criminal courts,” Harold Cogdell, the attorney representing Debbie Muhammad, said in a statement. “Debbie eagerly awaits her day in court when her name can be cleared.”
There is much more to the charges than what CMPD alleged, he said.
“Warith’s position is simple,” his attorney, Noell Tin, said in a message to The Charlotte Observer earlier this month. “He is innocent.”
This story was updated on May 1, 2024, to add a comment from Debbie Muhammad’s attorney.
