Audit: School Employees Embezzled $11.2M

AP ^ | 03/0205 | FRANK ELTMAN

[nypokerface]

NEW YORK - Flights aboard the Concorde for vacations in England. Mortgage payments for homes in Florida, the Hamptons and Pennsylvania. More than $1 million in cash advances. Even dry cleaning, cable TV and a Rolex watch.

A small group of public school employees in Roslyn, a prosperous Long Island community, embezzled $11.2 million since 1996, a state audit found.

State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi said Wednesday he had never before seen such a "systematic misappropriation of taxpayer money" by school officials.

"Certain senior officials with the keys to the cash register went on a spending spree of massive proportions," Hevesi said. "The variety of methods used was breathtaking."

Three former Roslyn officials, including the superintendent of schools, were arrested last year and are awaiting trial. Around the time of the arrests, school officials had estimated the losses at $8 million.

Hevesi has identified an additional 26 people who benefited from school funds — including friends and family members of school officials — and referred the case to the district attorney for possible prosecution.

The schools in Roslyn, 20 miles from Manhattan, are among the best in the state. The district sends 95 percent of its high school graduates to college. Foreign language education begins for all students in kindergarten, and SAT scores rank among the best in the nation.

Auditors went back eight years, reviewing 57,000 checks and tens of thousands of computer records, finding that some senior employees had the district cover their personal credit card bills and mortgages on luxury homes, and pay for such things as vacations, hair and nail salon appointments, and personal automobiles, including a BMW and a Jaguar.

[Cathy]

This doesn't surprise me at all.

[snarks_when_bored]

Education is under-funded, though.

[pabianice]

But...but... it was for the children!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"Certain senior officials with the keys to the cash register went on a spending spree of massive proportions (since 1996)," Hevesi said. "The variety of methods used was breathtaking."

I guess school districts never consider the idea of yearly audits.

[taxesareforever]

I guess school districts never consider the idea of yearly audits.


Of course not. School districts wouldn't commit fraud. They need every penny they get "for the children".

[Phantom Lord]

Yearly audits? Hell, the Dept of Educations books are audited every year and for as long as I can remember, every year they come back as "unauditable" because their record keeping is so poor.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Hell, the Dept of Educations books are audited every year and for as long as I can remember, every year they come back as "unauditable" because their record keeping is so poor.

I hear the IRS is the same way.

"Do as I say, not as I do."

[chris1]

Who cares? Its for the Children right?????

What a damn joke. This all goes on while the slob idiot taxpayer works like a dog.

[Red Badger]

The NEA will be up in arms........WHFO.........

[Rakkasan1]

Claims of education funding cuts just don't add up
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354258/posts

[Bon mots]

Oh I'm sure this is the only school in all of America where this has happened. < / sarcasm>

Imagine what you would find in the cozy Democrat enclaves? Lucky for them, nobody is looking.

[NormsRevenge]

(Newsday Photo/ Karen Wiles Stabile)

Pamela Gluckin, a former assistant superintendent for business in the Roslyn School District, was charged with grand larceny for embezzling more than $1 million from the district.

(Newsday/ Paul J. Bereswill)

Frank Tassone, the Superintendent of the Roslyn School District, was placed on indefinite administrative leave as of June 4, 2004

Frank Tassone, former superintendent of Roslyn schools, is taken to his arraignment Tuesday. (Newsday Photo/Karen Wiles Stabile)

Roslyn school board member Ellen Seigel resigned her position on June 23 after she came under fire for charging expenses to the district and taking other perks, such as computers for her home and cell phones, totaling $16,152 over her 11 years on the board.

[NormsRevenge]

Debra Rigano, a former account clerk of the Roslyn Union Free School District. Rigano was arrested on Oct. 19, 2004, and accused of using over $307,000 in school funds to pay off personal credit card debt between 2000 and 2002 for herself and several family members. Rigano is the niece of Pamel Gluckin, who has been charged with stealing more than $1 million from the district.

[ladylib]

I believe Mr. Tassone also had a condominium he shared with his gay lover in Las Vegas, paid for by the schmuck taxpayers. The gay lover, if I remember correctly, owned a company that had contracts with the school district.

My father always said public education was a racket. He's been dead for almost 30 years. Nothing new under the sun.