Three former municipal employees in Clear Lake, Minn., are charged with embezzling $201,000, or nearly half of the city’s annual property tax revenue and a fifth of its entire budget.

City leaders reported the suspected fraud to the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office in early 2024 after hiring a forensic accountant to review the books.

Clear Lake, which is 57 miles northwest of downtown Minneapolis, had 641 residents counted in the 2020 census and a total revenue in 2023 of just over $1 million, according to the Minnesota State Auditor’s office, which tracks local governments’ financial data. Nearly $404,000 of the city’s revenue that year came from property taxes.

Prosecutors allege that starting in late 2022 and throughout 2023, former City Clerk Kari K. Koren stole $125,217 by oversta

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