How did the mayor steal $652K from United Way?

Guy Thompson was mayor of little Milton, FL for 20 years. He became executive director of United Way of Santa Rosa County while mayor. Last week he plead guilty to stealing $652,000 from the charity.

Here’s how he did it:

As executive director, Thompson had access to the PO Box and the bank accounts. He collected the mail at the PO Box and deposited some of the checks that came in into the charity’s deposit account at Regions Bank, holding on to the rest. The office manager periodically would write a check on the deposit account (at Regions) to be transferred to the charity's operational account at Suntrust Bank. Thompson would head to Regions where he would present the check for withdrawal. He would demand a cashiers check and some cash, then head over to Suntrust with the cashiers check from Regions and the donation checks he had set aside and deposit both. The deposit would balance. Since the office never knew of the existence of the checks Thomson was holding, everything looked hunky dory. Thomson himself certified that audits were done. This went on for 6 years: don’t know exactly how the scheme was uncovered. PNJ article

I am fascinated at how fraudsters devise schemes. Some people's brains are just wired to cheat.

This is why Don give to established charities. I give directly or through my church.

quote:

Originally posted by cne32507:
I am fascinated at how fraudsters devise schemes. Some people's brains are just wired to cheat.

Ok, this clown is scum and should go to jail for a very long time, but lets not overlook the 'real' problems that existed. There was apparently 'zero' dual control and accountability for donations and operating funds in that organization. His scheme was not brilliant or unique in any way given the glaring deficiencies in accountability.

Why did my mind immediately go to Baltimore before I read the thread?

Florida Man!

Another crooked mayor. Haven't seen anything in the media about this.

Hmmmm, nothing in the media must be a democrat.

quote:

Originally posted by kramden:
Hmmmm, nothing in the media must be a democrat.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You ain't kidding......corrupt media. If a conservative farted in public it would be front page news.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
This is why Don give to established charities. I give directly or through my church.

I used to feel the same way, until the crooks running the church refused to disclose the use of any of he money. now i only give anything directly to the recipient in person. then it's all on me if i make a mistake.

You would assume that after the scandals nationally and locally since the early 1990's the United Way would have set up more checks and balances. Guess again.

1992 was the last time I donated to them. The company I worked for was "strongarming" all of us to be a 100% participation business. Probably just a coincidence that the owner's wife was on the regional board of directors, right?

quote:

Originally posted by kramden:
Hmmmm, nothing in the media must be a democrat.

Apparently in Milton, FL, the Mayor and City Council positions are 'non partisan'

Link to coverage detailing 2014 municipal elections

quote:

Milton’s roughly 6,700 voters will be able to cast ballots in the non-partisan election for the office of mayor and six city council seats.

Oof. I counted four errors in those procedures and can see who's going to be writing a check for that. That's a lot of spilt milk.

Milton is the nearest town to me. The council has 9 council members in a town with 6000 residents. No surprise that the politics is dysfunctional. The United Way thing has been in the local news a lot over the past year.

From the linked article: "submitting false certifications to United Way Worldwide that internal control assessments or independent audits had been conducted" . Thinking about how this could have been prevented, it would take a paranoid board of directors and an army of forensic accountants to audit all of United Way's branches. It would be of interest to know if Milton's United Way used a CPA...

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
This is why Don give to established charities. I give directly or through my church.

My old church was recently in the news because a few members of its board were responsible for stealing hundreds of thousands dollars of Church funds over a few years. They weren't very smart about it so they got caught quickly, but it can and will happen anywhere people are responsible for other people's money.

I asked two of my golf buddies, both CPA's, how Thompson got away with it for 6 years and how he was finally outed. They said the lack of very basic controls of accessibility to the PO Box and the bank accounts made the agency ripe for theft. And Regions bank busted the scheme.