In Derby, CT the board treasurer of a local Italian American Club siphoned $100K out of the institution's coffers. While I don't think the use of the funds, for those interested, he lost more than half of the funds playing slots at an area casino and used the other half for internet pornography. He accomplished his thefts over a five year period basically taking $20K a year. The Judge says the thief should pay back as much as possible. He also faces up to five years in prison.
It is of course great that the thief has been caught, will likely pay some of the money back and will likely serve some jail time, we should not be all celebratory. To some degree there was a huge fail on the part of the board which took the Treasurer for his word as to what was left in the budget or where the money went. But really? For a relatively small club, when a board thinks finances don't look right - it must step-in.
Doesn't look right, you say? But maybe the reports looked just fine and the earnings were used to offset the deficits such that the board just didn't know. Is this an ok situation? I say no! I say a finance committee (made up of more than one) should have played the role of third party and at least raised a flag to say something's not correct. 5 years is a long time. And no audit (probably wasn't required). And no one on the board or even the members, could have said something.
Essentially, this saga is a boar fail - one that will hopefully produce accountability changes going forward.