United Way Theft of $497,298 +..........
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| Fri, 03-05-2004 - 9:26am |
I'm disillusioned with these big charity organizations & I'm definately not alone. (see last paragraph of article) Are you?
I make sure my entire donation go to a cause, not 70% or such. I get more satisfaction giving on a more personal basis when I know I've made a difference.
Former Head of United Way in the Washington Area Pleads Guilty to Theft.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/national/05WAY.html
The executive who ran the United Way here for 27 years pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing $497,298 from the charity in a plea agreement that might send him to prison for 27 months. The charity's current president said that much more was taken and that a longer prison term was warranted.
The defendant, Oral Suer, ran the United Way of the National Capital Area, the nation's second-largest local United Way, with almost no oversight from the chief executives and business leaders who served on his board until he retired in 2001. For years he faked expenses, billed personal trips to Las Vegas to his United Way local and took cash advances that were not repaid, audits showed.
Mr. Suer, 69, also ordered the charity's auditors, the firm of Councilor, Buchanan & Mitchell, to withhold information about his misconduct from the board, a subsequent inquiry by the new board found. Although the accounting firm works for the board, not the agency's staff, it complied with the order year after year.
In Federal District Court here, Mr. Suer admitted to transporting $403,000 in stolen money across state lines and to taking $94,278.99 more than he was entitled to from the charity's pension plan, both felonies.
"I plead guilty, Your Honor," he told Judge Gerald Bruce Lee. Sentencing will be May 14.
The board that did not oversee Mr. Suer or his successor, Norman O. Taylor, was removed, and a new one was appointed. An audit it commissioned found last year that Mr. Suer stole $1.6 million, but Charles W. Anderson, the current president, cautioned that the figure was no doubt even larger because many records were missing.
"We feel the amount taken was much higher," Mr. Anderson said, adding that the charity will ask for a longer prison sentence.
He said the organization would pursue its two lawsuits in hopes of recovering some of the stolen money.
The guilty plea vindicated employees who tried to blow the whistle, first by telling a board member, who was removed after he raised questions about misuse of money, and by approaching newspapers.
In January 2001, The New York Times reported on the misuse of money, secret contracts and important issues that two board members withheld from the full board.
Donor reaction to the thefts and lack of oversight by community leaders was dramatic. The United Way of the National Capital Area lost its contract to run the $50 million-a-year workplace giving campaign for federal workers to a competing charity. Donations from others, like workers at companies in the area, plummeted to $18 million this year from $45 million in 2001.


Thinking of the people that money could have really helped...
This case appears to be an offshoot of the case in Michigan a couple of years ago when finance officer Jacquelyn Allen-MacGregor pleaded guilty to federal charges of check forgery and money laundering. She was supposed to have embezzled nearly $2 million which went to support her and her husband's horse farm. This investigation led to Suer being investigated when they found irregularies pertaining to him while investigating her.
Personally, my very favorite charity is MidOhio Food Bank. I send them a check. They send me a thank you note and that's it. They never ever try to solicit me for more money. My counterpart, DIL's mother who is a wonderfully wise woman, clued me in about them. She and I both hate it when you send a charity a contribution and then they use, what seems to us, most of the money writing letters back soliciting more money. Grrr.
>"when you send a charity a contribution and then they use, what seems to us, most of the money writing letters back soliciting more money. Grrr."<
PBS do that in this area, about a letter a week. We give X amount a year & don't need reminding or calling. One smarty pants called when I was really busy, I said "I'm not interested right now", the answer really PMO, "That's too bad". I felt like reaching down the phone & smacking him.
My XDH's company made it an obligation to contribute to the UW too.
I can't believe
Your comment about PBS made me think of my MIL.
>""big shots" in the Boy or Girl scouts were paid, some over the 6 figures."<
Same with the Red Cross. I stopped giving to them after 9/11 controversy, when $$$ was being funnelled to other areas that was given specifically