[nfbmi-talk] why this is on target

[joe harcz Comcast]

Note the article on fraud at the CSAVR. Note also that from at very least the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind directly contracted with CSAVR for administrative services and that Kymberli Rand was the person who also had some control over NCAB books. But, both organizaations use federal passthrough funds (i.e. Voc. Rehab. funds for dues). In other words Kymberli Rand stole money fthat would have gone to programs for both the general population of people with disabilities and from the blind.

Note because of defrauding NCASB Fred Schroeder lost his contract to be the legislative representative for VR and Independent Living programs for folks who are blind leaving us all with issues to be sure in these troubling legislative times.

That is only the short story of this sad affair...But it is highly relevent to this list serve.

Joe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106097.html

 

Nonprofit group digging its way out of $700,000 hole; bookkeeper faces charges

 

By

Susan Kinzie

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, July 2, 2010

 

Carl Suter had just announced his retirement as head of a nonprofit group that helps people with disabilities, just as he had been helped after being stricken

with polio as a child. Then a hotel manager pulled him aside with a bombshell.

 

The hotel hadn't been paid for the conference where Suter had made his speech. And it never was paid for the conference the year before, either.

 

It was the first sign that something had gone terribly wrong at the

Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation,

a national nonprofit based in Rockville that has been advocating for job training for people with disabilities since 1940.

 

That April morning, as the conference the group had convened at the same hotel for 20 years went on as usual, Suter began to realize that money was missing

-- a lot of money.

 

So was the bookkeeper.

 

More than $700,000 was gone, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court and first reported in the Washington Examiner.

 

Kymberli Rand of Brunswick was accused of wire fraud for allegedly using money from the organization's bank account for years to pay off her credit card

account, and for using CSAVR's American Express account for thousands of dollars' worth of her expenses, such as food and shoes.

 

She had worked for CSAVR since 2002, Suter said, one of seven employees in a close-knit office.

 

She had exclusive control of the organization's finances.

 

According to court documents, Rand tried to hide the fraud by preparing false papers from the organization's long-standing auditor, transferring money from

employees' retirement funds to cover operating expenses, and writing e-mails falsely claiming to be the funds' administrator and assuring employees that

there were no irregularities with their accounts.

 

It was an enormous shock, Suter said, and it felt deeply personal.

 

Rand had been at the conference the day before, he said, but when he went to ask her questions about the hotel payment, she was nowhere to be found. Not

at the conference, and not at home, either. Suter said he hasn't had contact with her since.

 

Rand and her attorney could not be reached to comment Thursday.

 

CSAVR brought in a forensic auditor, who very early on told Suter: This is going to be bad.

 

"I very much felt -- and I think everybody associated with us felt -- a real sense of betrayal," Suter said. "This is a person we had put a lot of trust

into."

 

The group had to make immediate changes. Its annual budget is about $1.3 million, most of it from membership dues.

 

The paid staff shrank to two.

 

Suter delayed his retirement as chief executive and went off the payroll, as did his deputy and another employee; all three continued as volunteers.

 

They are deeply committed to the work, he said. "I grew up with a disability" after getting polio, "so I benefited personally from going through the vocational

rehabilitation program," he said. "I had a series of nice career opportunities over the years. This was my way of paying back the program."

 

The vocational program began after injured soldiers returned home from World War I and has grown over the decades into a far-reaching federal effort.

 

On Thursday, the three volunteers became paid employees again, after 2 1/2 months.

 

Suter has a plan now, a budget for next year that is considerably leaner than in the past, a means to pay the bills and get by.

 

He said he hopes to retire this fall -- after the organization is back on its feet.