• Knox News has learned that the investigation into Knox County Trustee Justin Biggs and some staffers started with a tip to a whistleblower hotline.
• Biggs and some staff members spent more than allowed on hotel stays and drove trustee-leased vehicles for personal trips.
• The anonymous tip led to an internal audit by the county, which was turned over to the state watchdog agency.
• Knox News reported first that the watchdog agency, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, is investigating Biggs and some staff members.

If not for an anonymous call to Knox County's waste, fraud and abuse hotline, the investigation into misuse of taxpayer dollars and leased vehicles by Knox County Trustee Justin Biggs and some staffers might never have been launched.

Justin Biggs and his staff were reimbursed $4,716.59 that exceeded the county rate for hotel rooms on 10 trips from August 2023 to November 2024, according to records analyzed by Knox News. In all, Biggs and his staff paid $17,314.58 for those hotel rooms. Trustee staff also have driven county-leased vehicles for personal use, according to GPS records obtained by Knox News.

Sources with direct knowledge of a Knox County internal audit of the trustee's office confirmed to Knox News the county turned over the results of its audit to the state's watchdog agency, and that agency has been conducting an investigation of its own into the trustee's office.

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