Cumming woman pleads guilty in CDC invoice scam, stole $190,000

A former CDC supervisor from Cumming admitted she stole $190,461.50 from the agency by steering money through fraudulent invoices that looked like legitimate bills from vendors. The guilty plea puts a Forsyth County connection on a federal fraud case that prosecutors say ran for more than a year and a half inside one of Atlanta’s most prominent public health institutions.

Gwendolyn Brandon, 43, pleaded guilty to theft of government funds after prosecutors said she caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to pay at least 46 fake invoices from August 2023 through February 2025. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, the invoices were crafted to appear as if vendors were seeking payment for goods or services, but the money was instead sent to an account Brandon controlled.

Prosecutors said Brandon used her role as a supervisor and her knowledge of the CDC’s invoice and credit-card processing systems to keep the scheme moving. They also said she directed employees under her supervision to process payments without realizing they were helping carry out the fraud. That detail points to a failure not just of paperwork checks, but of the internal trust that lets a large federal agency function day to day.

The CDC, headquartered at 1600 Clifton Road NE in Atlanta, is the federal public health agency best known for protecting the nation’s health. The case lands hard in Forsyth County because Brandon was identified as being from Cumming, linking a long-running government theft case to a local resident even though the alleged misconduct unfolded inside a major federal office in Atlanta.

U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said Brandon “embezzled taxpayer money” and “brazenly exploited her position of public trust.” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General is investigating the case, and Special Agent in Charge Marcus L. Sykes said Brandon exploited her government position to steal taxpayer money.

Under the plea agreement, Brandon must resign from the CDC and will be barred from future federal employment, including work as a contractor or vendor for the government. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 3, 2026, at 10 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg, where the court will weigh the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica C. Morris is prosecuting the case.