Trust=$1 million embezzlement

by Gary Snyder

She enjoyed the trust of colleagues at one of Ottawa’s most venerable and respected publicly funded charities.

What lay beneath the façade was something radically different: A chronic, calculating, predatory thief who eluded oversight at Total Communication Environment (TCE) by constantly fooling fellow managers, the organization’s auditor and board of directors, while systematically bilking Ontario taxpayers out of almost $1 million.

She stole the money by spending on a company credit card that nobody but she knew she was using. She manipulated the general ledger to secretly pay off the monthly card debts and buried those transfers by adding odd dollar amounts to 28 salary and employee benefits.

“It was absolutely devastating,” says TCE’s longtime executive director, about the realization that 50-year-old employee was a thief in their midst — stealing not just from taxpayers but tangentially from TCE’s clients, adults with multiple disabilities who are among society’s most disadvantaged. (source)

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