What are your takeaways from the following Wall Street Journal article?
Man accused in abducted child scam
NEW YORK — The director of a non-profit that claimed to help victims of international child trafficking has been arrested in New York City.
Federal prosecutors announced the charges against Peter Senese on Tuesday morning.
A criminal complaint accuses Senese of defrauding parents through an organization called I CARE. It says he collected large fees on false promises he would reunite abducted children with their families.
The complaint says Senese told clients he was traveling the world as part of his efforts. It says he actually never left the United States.
The 49-year-old Senese was to appear in court later Tuesday. The name of his lawyer wasn't immediately available.
My first reaction after reading this was to ask: where is the board? How could any governing body let this kind of behavior occur? If indeed there is a governing body and the so-called nonprofit is not just a shell with actually no legitimate tax-exempt status (I went to Guidestar and could not find this organization) then there is no board to be accountable.
But if there is a board: much shame to them. I would expect that such failing on the part of an exec would eventually come to the surface and then a responsible board would take action -- turning the exec into officials themselves. And, should there be a board and it wasn't providing oversight -- all should be held accountable.