Unfounded Trust Leads To Hundreds Of Thousands of Lost Charity Dollars

by Gary Snyder

The unpaid president of three different nonprofit foundations purportedly embezzled from foundation accounts used to fund church programs providing housing assistance, re-entry services, child care and job training.

At the time of his arrest in April 2014, he had been AC Transit's chief financial officer for six years, collecting a $225,000 annual salary.

He is not suspected of any financial misdoing at AC Transit, which conducts thrice-yearly audits.

Lewis Clinton was a well-respected member of the finance world and the spiritual community before board members became suspicious that there might be financial impropriety when it was unable to make payroll and excessive ATM withdrawals and debit purchases were discovered, according to preliminary hearing testimony. He is accused of embezzling $527,000 in checks and cashiers checks from one foundation's credit union account, and another $60,000 to $70,000 in ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases from a Wells Fargo account.

Clinton used the stolen funds on a country club membership, private school tuition, luxury cars and vacations, according to testimony. Also without authority, he started paying himself a salary. (source) 

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