BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office arrested a woman on Thursday after she allegedly issued over $200,000 in fraudulent payroll payments. 

According to arrest records, on March 25, the Financial Crimes Division began investigating a complaint by a local towing company accusing 58-year-old Barbara Michot of issuing fraudulent payroll payments to four people not employed by the company. 

The discovery of the alleged payments came after Michot, who had been working as the accounting manager for the company, resigned from her position on Feb. 27. 

The company allegedly claimed to recognize three of the individuals receiving these payments as Michot's family members and the fourth as an associate of Michot. 

According to arrest records, an audit of the payroll accounting revealed that from Oct. 13, 2022, to Feb. 13, 2025, Michot allegedly processed a total of over $200,000 in fraudulent payroll payments. 

Bank records allegedly showed that once the payroll payments were deposited into one of the four accounts, a Zelle transfer would send the money directly to Michot's personal bank account. 

Michot was arrested on several charges, including illegal transmission of monetary funds and theft over $25,000.