Metzy--
I missed the original posting for this when I was out of town.... Are you still trying to figure this out? I might be able to help--email me at mum24kidsathotmaildotcom with some contact information for you.

We have policies and procedures for handling funds, I highly recommend this. It doesn't help your situation now, but in the future will deter from this happening again. Our policies clearly state that two people have to count the proceeds at every event, if the treasurer took anything, we would know. :eek:

This is why it is so important to have checks and balances. Ideally, (in the future) you would make it a routine procedure for the chair of each event to have a budget summary for each event/activity that includes what was taken in.

For somethings, it's keeping track of your beginning and ending inventory and assigning the value to what was sold.

For events with tickets, it means counting the tickets for an independent verification.

And then the person collecting money cannot be the person running the event.

From experience, I can tell you that the budget summary will rarely ever match the cash box penney for penney. Lots of reasons for that, and you don't need to launch an investigation every time. But it lets you identify patterns and discrepancies.

When we dealt with our embezzlement several years ago, the tip off was that the event budget showed we took in about $500 (by counting tickets redeemed) and the treasurer only deposited about $400. Not a huge difference, but way too big a margin of error for that event. On that one, if anything, the cash box should have had MORE money than the summary, because some people bought tickets and then didn't use them.

As far as your situation, I doubt "averages" would do it for you in court, but it might provide leverage for the person to confess.

Oh yeah, the other officers...lol... My biggest question was why none of them saw what was happening. Here is that scoop in a nutshell:

First year: The prez was running a teacher supply store and was too busy over-charging the group for stuff to notice. The veep didn't want to be on the board anyway and was a school aide with a very busy schedule. The secretary was burnt out and simply didn't care.

Second year: The prez was the treasurers husband (starting to see why I had issues and did not participate within the group?). The veep was too busy trying to take credit for everything (none of which she earned credit for). The secretary was brand spanking new, didn't know what to look for, and may have stumbled on 'something' being wrong, because she never returned after the February meeting.

When I called the second year veep about her notes (she took notes at EVERY meeting), she said she didn't take notes, or at least she didn't have them any more.

The police are subpeonaing everyone from the prior officers to the vendors. The T-shirts will probably be traceable, except that that particular vendor is huge friends with the veep and treasurer. Not that it matters... a subpeona is a subpeona.

As for the Santa Shop: A cash register was not used. Prices were marked up any where from .10 to $1.00, and there was stuff ordered from other vendors as well. No, I think that will be somewhat of a dead end, other than the checks that were deposited. Too bad too, most of Santa Shop is cash.

I have looked into every means possible of figuring out the actual totals of what she took. I'm just trying to figure out how an audit could be done without any receipts, Minutes, Treasury Reports, etc. When I say there is nothing, I mean NOTHING!

Stinks, don't it?

And believe you me, I am going after her in civil court on behalf of the group. I've just got to find a way to figure out the cash numbers problem.

If you come up with an idea, Please Let Me Know!

Okay, let me ask this. Your Santa Shop (as an example), the vendor should have records of what they gave you and what you returned to them. They know what you paid them for their share of what you sold. So let's say that you were recorded by the vendor to have made $500.00. If her deposit that month (following the sale) only shows $100 can they not deduce that she pocketed $400?

Same thing for Spirit wear, your vendor should have a record of what you sold.

The raffel baskets will be unprovable as I can't imagine there is a way to prove how many tickets you sold? Unless you had a brand new rolls with a receipts and you can see what tickets are left starting at what #

Becuase this person is not being cooperative and is still lying about what she did, I would go after her in every means possible, inclucing a civil suit if it is doable!

Where are the other Ex officers and members at this time? Is there any way they can be helpful in this matter? Are they willing or have they all run for cover?

Good Luck Metzy! What a horrible situation to be in.

I have to laugh a little at the word 'assuming' in any context associated with the group treasurer of the last two years...

We assumed she was honest.
We assumed she was there for the kids.
We assumed she was doing a good job.
We assumed that when she said she could not provide a treasury report because her computer had a virus, that she was telling the truth.

We learned that 'assume' is just what it breaks down to: ass (of) u (and) me.

I was not active in our group over the last two years because of issues too many to go into here. While not active a PTO member, I was a full time volunteer for the school, not our group. I was Site Council prez for both those years. I am now the group prez, but alas, have no group at the moment. :confused: :confused:

In response to your question:

is it possible to get them on interest lost on stolen money?

ours was a checking account and garnered no interest. I'll tell you what it isn't possible to get them on: CASH. We can only recover what we can prove. That means that we can recover the money she wrote herself checks for, the money that the vendors records show should have been our profit, and little else. All the cash candy cane sales cash? Gone. All the Santa Shop cash? Gone. All the Basket Raffle cash? Gone. Spirit Shirt cash? Gone.

Too depressing...

I am looking into filing a civil suit against her for the cash though. If we took the 3 years prior paperwork and averaged it out money-wise, wouldn't that be a way to guesstimate what the year should have brought in?

[ 08-04-2004, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: TheMetzyMom ]