A campaign treasurer for multiple political clients is accused of embezzlement in California. 

According to TPM, Kinde Durkee works for a family firm that manages funds for many California politicians, including Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez who alleges her campaign fund was “wiped out”. The LA Times reports that she had signing authority on over 400 political campaign accounts. She also had a history of questionable practices and ethics concerns.

She faces mail fraud charges in Federal Court.

Campaign embezzlement is fairly unusual since there is typically a lot of oversight into where the funds get spent, by campaign and political watchdog groups, and especially since the records are widely available. So this is an unusual and large case that will be interesting to watch.

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Good article in the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine about the perils of embezzlement for local non-profits. 

When financial theft hits home at a local level for a charitable organization, it is a painful betrayal of trust. But there are a few simple things that can help avoid that problem, which include:

• Require two signatures for all checks
• Make sure your organization’s Treasurer is bonded
• Have an annual audit, either formally, or at least provide some informal, but regular oversight.

A worthwhile read for anyone interested in prudent steps to avoid embezzlement in their organization.

Update: More info on how to prevent embezzlement in your organization.

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More details are emerging on the embezzlement case of a former Massachusetts library director who allegedly took over $200.000 in public funds designated for library purchases. He was arraigned in Superior Court.

As we noted before, the man is accused of using library funds to purchase items for his own use, many of which were collectibles that he sold on Ebay.

The Globe reports that he bought many odd collectible items, and logged them as library book purchases. For example, he bought a camera and logged in as an encyclopedia of cameras.

He is charged with multiple counts of larceny, fraud, and embezzlement by a city official under Massachusetts law. From the tone of the story, it looks like he has a difficult road in mounting an effective embezzlement defense.

And whenever someone is charged with embezzlement or theft if public funds, the District Attorney is going to be extremely aggressive in prosecution this case, looking for the maximum sentence possible. Anytime there is publicity and public corruption, there isn’t much room for them to cut a deal with the defendant.

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The former head of the public library system for the town of Revere, MA was charged with embezzling over $200,ooo in a scheme where he ordered materials payed for by the town, and sold them himself on ebay.

According to the Boston Globe, he faces multiple criminal counts under Massachusetts law, including larceny over $250, procurement fraud, and embezzlement by a city officer. He was indicted on 21 felony charges total. If convicted of the embezzlement, he faces significant a prison sentence.

The procurement fraud counts are incidents of changing the city purchase orders to suggest that they were legitimate items for the library, instead of whatever product he ended up selling online.

Public employee embezzlement like this always makes the news. And prosecutors are serious about cracking down on public corruption embezzlement cases. Many states like Massachusetts even have additional felony charges for “embezzlement by a city official”.

Citizens are often up and arms amount government employee theft, so there is always a strong political element to these cases, where district attorneys have to take a very tough stance and press for serious criminal penalties.

Particularly when the offenses seem so blatant, like in this case where the administrator brazenly stole over $200,000 of items from the town over many years.

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A man who embezzled almost $700,000 over a 6 year period is now sentenced to 1 year in a Maryland prison.

The defendant is said to have faked checks from his family sheet metal firm allegedly for legitimate expenses, and used the real checks for personal expenses, according to this news report.

Under Maryland fraud laws, he could have faced many more years in prison for theft of that much money. According to the article, the terms of the deal resulted in charged being dropped for related theft and embezzlement charges, in change for a guilty plea to a count of theft over $500.

As we have noted before, embezzlement by family members, while often surprising, is not as uncommon as one might think. While personal loyalty and familial connection would lead most people to believe that stealing from your father’s business would be less likely, the counterbalacing factors include:

• Ease of access
• Less Oversight for family members
• Sense of entitlement

It is always unfortunate when family disputes result in public criminal charges, but the impact on shareholders and employees who aren’t familiy members often can’t just be ignored.

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A former cheerleading coach at San Francisco State University was convicted of felony embezzlment for taking money from her cheerleading squad that was used for personal expenses and travel. The 24 year old woman was sentenced to pay restitution for the over $14,000 taken, as well as 5 days in jail, and 200 hours of community service. If she completes the terms of her probation, her felony embezzlement charge could be reduced to a misdemeanor.

The penalty is relatively light, considering that for a felony embezzlement offense in California, she could have been facing a year in jail.

In embezzlement cases, there are two primary factors that influence judges for to offer relatively light sentences: the ability to pay restitution, and the defendant taking responsibility for her actions.

It appears that both of those factors were present in this case.

There was also a recent cheerleader embezzlement case in Washington state, so this is a peculiar trend.

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A former firefighter and educator at the Mt. San Antonio College Fire Academy in Walnut, CA was charged with embezzling $500,ooo from students at the school. He opened an unauthorized bank account, and collected funds from students in cash, and marked up equipment costs, pocketing the difference.

Jerry Dewayne Austin or Norco, CA is accused of multiple embezzlement related felony charges in California, including identity theft, forgery, and grand theft.

Firefighters are typically known and thought to be upstanding community members. Family and friends describe Austin as that kind of guy, so it remains to be seen what might have happened in this case, that would lead to such a massive alleged fraud and embezzlement effort on his part.

According to KABC, the defendant remained in jail as of 1/13, with his bail reduced to 1.1 million, from $3 million originally.

via Firefighternation.

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Though embezzlement is a financial crime, not all embezzlement charges are particularly sophisticated schemes. One man is accused of embezzling almost $150,000, $20 at a time from individual ATMs he serviced in Stockton, CA working for an armored car company.The part that makes this story even more interesting and sensational is the pure lack of guile in the case. He stole in small amounts from the same ATMs on his route, and most remarkably, according to news reports, spent the entire $150,000 on strippers at a single club.

According to embezzlement laws in California, the man could face felony charges of grand theft, and face more than a year in prison.

As with many embezzlement schemes that sound crazy and hard to believe someone could pull it off, one wonders how it took over a year to figure out that money was missing so consistently? But as with most things, you can get away with a lot if no one is paying close attention. And $20 increments out of ATMs is probably barely noticeable, but it clearly adds up after a year.

This is certainly one of the less subtle and less planned out embezzlement charges we’ve heard about, but it takes all kinds as they say.

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via bankembezzlment and fraudtalk.

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A Virginia woman was convicted of embezzling from the city of Newport News, VA, but received a sentence that included no jail time.

The woman worked for the department of juvenile services in Virginia, and stole over $17,000  primarily via credit cards issues to her for business expenses for the city.

In the story at the daily press, the judge in the case considered that the woman had absolutely no criminal history, had a job, and the support of the community. She was apparently incredibly remorseful, and admitted her mistake, her bad judgement, and expressed tremendous guilt.

Her sentence includes home confinement, and restitution in the amount of $100 per month.

Restitution is a common element of an embezzlement penalty that includes no jail time. The victims of any embezzlement typically want to be paid back more than they want punishment for the crime, and the court often considered that ability to repay the stolen funds.

In this case, it appears it is more a situation that the judge found her to be an extremely sympathetic defendant and genuinely remorseful. The $100/month is really a token effort, and it will take her a long time to pay off the amount at that rate.

But clearly the judge thought that no good would be served by sentencing this woman to jail time for this offense.

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The half brother of comedian Dane Cook was sentenced to 5-6 years in prison after being convicted of embezzlement of millions of dollars. The brother, who acted as business manager for cook, wrote checks from the business account and deposited them to his personal account, possibly over the course of several years.According to CBS News, Darryl McCauley was convicted in a Massachusetts court of 27 counts of larceny over $250, embezzlement, three counts of forgery, and other charges.

After release from prison, he faces another 10 years of probation, and will be forced to pay restitution in the amount that he stolen.

Embezzlement against family members is more common than most people realize. The bond of trust means that people are less initially less suspicious, so the embezzlement can go on for a while. And family businesses often have less financial oversight and less strict auditing than other businesses.

Even more common, unfortunately, when it comes to embezzlement from family members is when someone takes advantage of an elderly, mentally impaired or disabled family member, if they are responsibility for financial decisions and have power of attorney.

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via gather.

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