LITTLE ROCK — An eighth person has been arrested in connection with an investigation into alleged thefts from a federal feeding program, Christopher Thyer, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, said Friday.

LITTLE ROCK — An eighth person has been arrested in connection with an investigation into alleged thefts from a federal feeding program, Christopher Thyer, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, said Friday.

A federal complaint filed Friday alleges that Maria Carmen Nelson, 49, who sponsored a feeding program through an organization called "Securing Our Future," falsely reported daily attendance of children in order to steal more than $575,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nelson also is an employee of a security firm that guards the Federal Building in Little Rock, Thyer said in a news release.

An Arkansas Department of Human Services employee who approved Nelson’s application to sponsor the program also approved the application of Michael Lee, who was indicted in July 2015, Thyer said.

Nelson was arraigned before a federal judge in Little Rock on a charge of wire fraud and was released on bond.

The maximum penalty for wire fraud is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The investigation is continuing and is being conducted by the USDA’s Office of the Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations unit and the U.S. Marshals Service.