A Serial Charity Thief Of Almost $500,000, Plus More

by Gary Snyder

When former Triangle Area Network (TAN) director Peggy Lynn Gibson pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $200,000 from the nonprofit in front of Jefferson County’s 252nd District Court Judge Raquel West many were surprised that the charismatic and energetic executive would be morally capable of such indiscretion. However, this isn’t the first time Gibson has absconded with tens of thousands of dollars meant for the healthcare of those she was paid to assist.

“It did not show up on any of the background checks,” TAN board of directors president Jeff McManus said of eventually learning that Gibson had embezzled from her last employer before finding a new victim in the nonprofit TAN, staffed mostly by volunteers. “From what I know now, she was barely out of that when she started with us.”

According to information obtained by The Examiner, Gibson was charged with embezzling at least $108,000 from Texas Home Health in Hardin County while she was employed by the healthcare provider in 2009. At the end of 2010, she agreed to pay back the money in exchange for the complainant dismissing charges. By January 2012, it appears she still had yet to make good on her end of the bargain as a Hardin County grand jury indicted Gibson on second-degree theft charges for the 2009 embezzlement. A little more than a year later, in July 2013, Hardin County prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges because “the defendant has paid restitution in full.”

Where she got the money to pay off her $100,000-plus bounty is open to speculation, but according to the Jefferson County indictment that charges she went on to embezzle more than $363,000 from TAN, her crimes against the Beaumont nonprofit.

An out-of-state criminal background check may have alerted someone to at least some of Gibson’s prior bad acts, but they would have to know some of her many other names – such as Peggy Coker, Peggy Redmond and Peggy Doan.

It was under the name Peggy Doan that the admitted embezzler was first convicted of theft. According to a criminal background check, Gibson (Doan) pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and one count of forgery in El Paso County, Colorado in 1996. She was given deferred adjudication and a fine.

Gibson later went on to register a string of businesses – some of which are still in operation, according to filings made with the state of Texas. It is alleged that one way she was able to embezzle from past employers was by opening up similarly named companies and depositing checks meant for the legitimate firm. 

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Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Charity Navigator, Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio (NPR), Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), “Betrayal”, (a movie), NBC (on Charity Fraud…TBD), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Marie Claire, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, Charity Navigator, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, Board Room Insider, USA Today Topics, Accountants News, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times, Portfolio Magazine, The Virgin Islands Daily News, NANKAI (China) BUSINESS REVIEW, National Religious Broadcasters newsletter, The Charity Governance Blog, American Chronicle, Palm Beach Post, Detroit Free Press, Oakland Press, Nonprofit World, Socially Responsible Business Forum, PNNOnline, Ohio Nonprofit Resources, Nonprofit Good Practice Guide, Nonprofit Startup Guide, Nonprofit Blog, National Coalition of Homeless Newsletter, Finance and Administration Roundtable Newsletter, MichiganNonprofit.com, CORP! Magazine, Crain’s Michigan Nonprofit, ncrp.org, PhilanTopic, Nashville Free Press, Nonprofit Law Blog, Seniors World Chronicle, Carnegie Reporter, Assoc. of Certified Fraud Examiners Examiner, msnbc.com, Worchester (MA) Telegram and Gazette, Carnegie Corporation of America, EO Tax Journal, Wikipedia: Non-profit Organizations; Parent: Wise Austin, Accountants News, Veterans Today, Answers.com, Far-roundtable, #Nonprofit Report, nonprofithelpnews, nonprofit news; National Enquirer, Northwest Herald, The HelpWise Daily, The #Nonprofit Report, Wikipedia (Nonprofit Organization), Answers.com, Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)