Former Journeys Academy principal charged with embezzling $350,000 in Naples,Florida

The former principal of the now-defunct Journeys Academy was arrested Tuesday on federal charges of wire fraud.
Investigators said Larry Christopher, 55, of the 1300 block Remington Way, North Naples, misappropriated about $350,000 from the former Journey’s Academy, 10641 Airport Pulling Road N., Suite 28. The investigation determined that Christopher embezzled the money between 2007 and July 2009 while he was employed at the academy as its chief financial officer.
The warrant was served Tuesday at Christopher’s home following more than a year-long investigation by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Secret Service. The State Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Naples also assisted with the investigation.
School founder Loren Hoffman reported the incident to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office in August 2009. According to police reports, Hoffman opened an operating account for the school that required two signatures for proper authorization. The signatures required were Hoffman’s and a name that was redacted from police reports, according to the report.
During the course of the first quarter of 2009, according to the report, the employee allegedly opened a second business account without Hoffman as an authorized signer on the account.
The suspect in the report is redacted, but under the suspect’s employment, the report has a redacted line and then the words CFO, an acronym that normally stands for chief financial officer.
Christopher handled the school’s finances.
This is not Christopher’s first run-in with the law.
In September 2002, Christopher was fired from Golden Gate Middle School because he didn’t disclose that he’d been convicted of four felony mail fraud charges and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, followed by three years of probation. A federal judge had also ordered him to repay his victims $1.5 million. A $1.573 million lien, with 1.81 percent interest, against him is filed in Collier County.
School officials were unaware of the indictment and conviction because he was hired as a substitute teacher in October 2001, indicted less than two months later and didn’t disclose it. When he was indicted, he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer he had committed no fraud and questioned why he was being charged years after he’d closed his company.
He was tried and convicted in May 2002, sentenced in July 2004 and appealed. He lost his appeal a year later, appealed again to a higher court, but was denied a hearing and ordered to serve his sentence. He surrendered at a prison in Maxwell, Ala., in December 2005, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records, which also show he was released on Nov. 9, 2007.
State incorporation papers for Journeys Academy Inc. were filed in October 2008, listing Hoffman as president, Christopher as vice president and his wife, Janice, as a director with Clay Vaughn of Naples and Jon Biffar of Cape Coral.
In July 2009, parents of Journeys students received an e-mail from Hoffman saying the school would not open for the 2009-10 school year.
"Dear parents, Larry Christopher is no longer working for Journeys Academy. No further information can be given while this case is under investigation by the authorities. Consequently, and unfortunately, Journeys Academy will be closed for this 2009-2010 school year. For McKay participants, please contact your district representative for directions," the letter reads, which was signed by Hoffman for the corporation.
McKay scholarships are for students with disabilities and provide families with state money to allow those children to attend private schools.
Several parents said at the time they wondered how they were going to get back thousands of dollars in tuition to the school, adding the alarm sounded for them at the end of the 2008-09 school year when teachers informed parents that Hoffman had told them they were behind on rent and might be evicted by their landlord before the end of the school year.
The school is also facing a suit against two teachers who said they were not compensated for their work.
At the time, parent Thomas Gary said he wasn’t surprised law enforcement was looking into Journeys.
"The IRS showed up at the school to collect back taxes," he said. "We paid our tuition. They had the scholarships. We did the fund raising. Where did the money go? There were too many questions that weren’t addressed at all."