5 indicted in embezzlement of school district funds

Five people on Friday were indicted by a grand jury in connection with the embezzlement of nearly $300,000 from the Clark County School District.

The theft of public funds came from the district's Adult English Language Acquisition program, which has since been shut down.

Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky first learned of the theft last December. Skorkowsky called a press conference on Friday to discuss the indictment. During the press event he said he called police immediately upon learning of the crime.

"This is something that we are not going to tolerate in the Clark County School District," Skorkowsky said.

The 52-count indictment accuses program director Priscilla Rocha of falsifying time cards and directing money to co-defendants for personal use.

"We can't allow this. We are so cash-strapped as it is that we can't afford to let anyone take anything out of a student's hand," Skorkowsky said.

Skorkowsky said that Rocha, who had been with the district since 1990, is also accused of buying thousands of dollars' worth of computer equipment with program funds and giving it to schools in Mexico. The indictment additionally states she would charge students for dictionaries and pocket the cash.

The theft has forced the district to make policy changes, and more will come after additional documents are revealed to district leaders.

"We will be looking at all of our procedures when it comes to accounting, money and expenditures based upon those documents so we can see what we can put in place to prevent this from ever happening again," Skorkowsky said.

Las Vegas police served search warrants at the program office and elsewhere after being tipped off by an employee.

Rocha and three additional employees, who have yet to be identified, were placed on leave.

"This was a person supposedly in a position of authority. So was she given too much authority that allowed this type of supposed embezzlement of money for personal use?" FOX5 legal analyst Bob Massi asked.

Massi said that typically criminals are caught when someone turns them in.

"I think in this case $300,000 is a lot of money, but you wonder if it had gone on, how much money this could have been?" he said.

Rocha retired in April while under investigation.

The program she headed offered English classes to non or limited English-speaking adults. Skorkowsky said the district is in the process of rolling that program into another one.

Rocha is scheduled to appear in court on July 24.

5 indicted in embezzlement of school district funds

Five people on Friday were indicted by a grand jury in connection with the embezzlement of nearly $300,000 from the Clark County School District.

The theft of public funds came from the district's Adult English Language Acquisition program, which has since been shut down.

Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky first learned of the theft last December. Skorkowsky called a press conference on Friday to discuss the indictment. During the press event he said he called police immediately upon learning of the crime.

"This is something that we are not going to tolerate in the Clark County School District," Skorkowsky said.

The 52-count indictment accuses program director Priscilla Rocha of falsifying time cards and directing money to co-defendants for personal use.

"We can't allow this. We are so cash-strapped as it is that we can't afford to let anyone take anything out of a student's hand," Skorkowsky said.

Skorkowsky said that Rocha, who had been with the district since 1990, is also accused of buying thousands of dollars' worth of computer equipment with program funds and giving it to schools in Mexico. The indictment additionally states she would charge students for dictionaries and pocket the cash.

The theft has forced the district to make policy changes, and more will come after additional documents are revealed to district leaders.

"We will be looking at all of our procedures when it comes to accounting, money and expenditures based upon those documents so we can see what we can put in place to prevent this from ever happening again," Skorkowsky said.

Las Vegas police served search warrants at the program office and elsewhere after being tipped off by an employee.

Rocha and three additional employees, who have yet to be identified, were placed on leave.

"This was a person supposedly in a position of authority. So was she given too much authority that allowed this type of supposed embezzlement of money for personal use?" FOX5 legal analyst Bob Massi asked.

Massi said that typically criminals are caught when someone turns them in.

"I think in this case $300,000 is a lot of money, but you wonder if it had gone on, how much money this could have been?" he said.

Rocha retired in April while under investigation.

The program she headed offered English classes to non or limited English-speaking adults. Skorkowsky said the district is in the process of rolling that program into another one.

Rocha is scheduled to appear in court on July 24.

Lutherans Say They Were Bamboozled in Las Vegas

A Lutheran church sued its treasurer, claiming he embezzled $1.1 million - some of which he spent to buy land from a distant monastery.
     Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, of Las Vegas, sued Gregory R. Olson and Wells Fargo Bank, in Clark County Court.
     The church claims it hired Olson as its treasurer in May 2005, and he was embezzling before he'd been there a year.
     "From January 3, 2006 to September 18, 2009, defendant Olson without plaintiff Lutheran Church's approval, drew several checks from the account of plaintiff Lutheran Church in the amount of $1,123,279.84 for his own personal use," the complaint states.
     The church claims Olson took out five mortgages against church property without its permission and without notifying it.
     It claims that Olson was involved in a lawsuit about a property he had defaulted on, and he used some of the embezzled money to pay his legal expenses. He also bought a 2.5-acre parcel of land and told Amazing Grace he used his own money, according to the complaint.
     The church claims it lost title to its property through foreclosure, thanks to Olson's embezzlement.
     To top it off, Olson bought land from a monastery with the stolen money, according to the complaint.
     "On or about June 25, 2009, defendant Olson purchased, without plaintiff Lutheran Church's approval, and in plaintiff Lutheran Church's name, a parcel of land from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Monastery in Carmel, CA. He then proceeded to take out a mortgage on this property. He also convinced the monastery to subordinate a second mortgage to him in the amount of $370,000.00. He used the funds from this second mortgage to pay off the first and second mortgages on the monastery parcel for approximately one year. Defendant Olson's intention was to hold onto the property for a year and then resell it so that he could recoup the losses plaintiff Lutheran Church had incurred because of the above transactions in the Bruce Street property [in Las Vegas]."
     The church found out about the embezzlement in September 2009 and fired him, according to the complaint.
     It seeks damages for breach of contract and breach of faith, against Olson and the bank.
     It is represented by Robert J. Flummerfelt with Canon Law Services of Las Vegas.

Church embezzler must pay back $152,000 in Nevada

A former church bookkeeper and first-grade teacher was sentenced Monday to a year in jail as part of her probation for embezzling more than $152,000 from the church over eight years.




District Judge Michael Gibbons sentenced Tracey L. Taylor, 45, of Carson City, to six years in Nevada state prison, suspended and placed her on five years' probation.



She is to pay $152,380.62 restitution to Corpus Christi Catholic Church at $1,000 per month, perform 200 hours of community service and serve a year in Douglas County Jail. Taylor paid $5,000 of the restitution on Monday.



In exchange for her guilty plea, charges will not be filed against Taylor by Carson City authorities for embezzlement, which occurred while the church was located on the grounds of the old Stewart Indian School.



In 2009, the parish moved to property in northern Douglas County where Taylor was working when the embezzlement was discovered in January.



The Rev. James Setelik, Corpus Christi pastor, testified Monday about the effect the crime had on the parish, which he characterized as one of the poorest in the Reno diocese made up of working-class parishioners.



“You might not think $152,000 over eight years is a lot of money. But our income is $180,000 a year. She has taken one-eighth of our income over the past eight years,” Setelik said.



Setelik said Taylor was altering computer records so the system would not show discrepancies. The case came to light when an NV Energy representative called Setelik to ask whether the church was paying parishioners' utility bills.



“It was quite a fluke we found out,” he said.



Taylor worked 10 hours a week for the church.



He said church officials began reviewing payments and discovered “she (Taylor) had made a career stealing money from the church from the inception of her job” in 2004.



She also taught for eight years at St. Teresa of Avila grade school in Carson City.



“This is money we really could have used,” Setelik said.



He said while the embezzlement was going on, Taylor was recommending cuts in parish programs because of church finances.



“We cut out gifts we distributed at Mother's Day and Father's Day, and Christmas ornaments we gave to families,” he said.



He called Taylor's crime well planned.



“Somebody was plotting this for eight years against a church that is financially strapped,” he said. “This is really a crime against the people of this parish; people who put do nations in the collection basket every week.”



He said the crime tarnished the church's reputation and put a halt to its capital campaign because people didn't trust what would happen to their donations.



“My belief is that I think with a few months in jail she would really see what life is like when you commit a crime,” Setelik said.



The priest said he was pessi m istic restitution would be paid in full.



Taylor apologized to Setelik, church officials, her family, friends and parishioners.



“I can't justify what I did,” she said. “I got caught up in living a life I couldn't afford. I betrayed my friends and family. I will do whatever I need to make it right.”



Taylor's attorney, Tod Young, said she used the money to pay bills and attempt to maintain a lifestyle she could not afford.



“Tracey tries to tell you how this came about,” Young said. “She can't envision this herself. She said she never thought this was a long-term solution. She just found herself needing some money. She did the wrong thing. It became easier to do it the next time. If she were a thief at heart, she wouldn't offer you an explanation.”



Investigators discovered 19 checks to Walmart totaling $13,789; 18 to Orchard Bank in City of Industry, Calif., for $11,087; and 16 checks to Merrick Bank in Hicks ville, N.Y., all credited to Taylor's accounts.



Prosecutor Karen Dustman asked that Taylor be sentenced to a year in jail.



“She wanted to maintain a lifestyle ... to which she was not entitled because she didn't have the funds. She hurt the parish,” Dust man said.



In weighing her sentence, Gibbons said Taylor had no prior criminal history, was educated, remorseful, and had family support.



Gibbons said she seemed unlikely to reoffend.



He agreed that probation was appropriate rather than sending her to prison where she faced up to 10 years.



But he said the “intentional, repeated” aspects of the crime merited jail time.



“I think you knew this was coming,” Gibbons said. “It's difficult to face, but you were very close to going to prison. Most people would not be getting probation.”



While on probation, Taylor must abstain from alcohol, controlled substances and gambling.

Nevada Principal Replaced Due to Michigan Embezzlement Charges

A temporary replacement has been named for a Sparks elementary school principal who was placed on administrative leave after officials learned he's on parole for embezzling in Michigan.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports that Rick Harris will replace Andrew Stansberry at Moss Elementary School beginning Monday.
The action was required after Washoe County School District officials recently learned that Stansberry had been sentenced for embezzling $26,796 from a school fund while a principal for Michigan's Benton Harbor School District.
Washoe district officials said there was no update on the investigation of Stansberry or what might happen at the Sparks school if he is terminated.
Harris is a 25-year veteran of the Washoe school district.

Nevada Woman Accused of Embezzling from Church

FROM KOLOTV.COM -

A 45-year-old woman accused of embezzling more than $40,000 from a Douglas County church has waived her preliminary hearing in East Fork Justice Court.


Tracey Taylor of Carson City is scheduled to appear Sept. 17 in Douglas County District Court.

She has been charged with a felony embezzlement count in the theft of $41,727 from the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in a check-cashing scheme.

Taylor is accused of writing multiple checks against the church bank account that went to herself, Walmart, two banks, JCPenney and others.

According to court documents, she has been suspended from her part-time job at the church. She had worked for the church since 2006.

Taylor has been a teacher at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic School in Carson City.

Vegas priest who stole church money to gamble sentenced to prison.

From: LATimes.com

For years, Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe lived something of a double life.

He was widely admired by his flock at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, which he helped build into one of the largest Roman Catholic parishes in the Las Vegas area. But at the same time, he was stealing money from the church.
He stole from the gift shop. He stole from the votive candle collection. He stole from a fund for novenas, or Masses in honor of the dead. Over nearly a decade, he pocketed about $650,000.
His motive was all too familiar in slot-machine-heavy Nevada. McAuliffe was a gambling addict.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge James C. Mahan sentenced the priest, who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the thefts, to more than three years in prison and ordered him to pay restitution. In doing so, the judge waved off the defense's request to give McAuliffe probation.
McAuliffe’s attorney, Margaret Stanish, asked the court to consider his lifelong devotion to the Catholic Church, which started with helping nuns when he was a schoolboy. McAuliffe has also been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and depression, she said, but in recent months had “excelled” in gambling addiction treatment.
“Some supporters see the potential for something good to come from the realization that their trusted spiritual leader also suffers from human frailty, a frailty that merits forgiveness in accordance with their religious beliefs,” she wrote.
Indeed, dozens of parishioners asked the court to show mercy. Before McAuliffe’s gambling addiction was made public, some parishioners told reporters he must have had a Robin Hood-type reason to steal. McAuliffe, 59, appeared to them a picture of humility, with his scuffed boots and banged-up Cadillac.
At St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, he oversaw the construction of a K-8 school and a community center, and he promoted collections of socks and underwear for the homeless, court papers said. He has since resigned as the church’s pastor, and the local bishop restricted his authority to perform various priestly duties.
“I speak for myself and many from our very large congregation, that we are sorry for what Fr. Kevin has done," parishioner Karen Kinney said in a letter to the court, "but all the good that he has done for all of us over these many years has outweighed the sin of taking the money from our Church."
But the judge was more heavily swayed by prosecutors, who focused on the length and depth of McAuliffe's deception. He falsified parish financial reports and shuffled money among accounts to cover his theft, court papers said.
McAuliffe never sought treatment for his betting problem, prosecutors said, though he could have through the church or private counselors. He also left his own savings untouched as he burned through the church's money.
“The defendant worked diligently within the church, was bestowed with a position of high honor, responsibility, and trust, and abused those bestowals,” wrote Christina Brown, an assistant U.S. attorney.