Click on the link below for an update on Sallyanne’s Lawsuit.
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The Jury’s Still Out …
Hey y’all. It’s Jim Jr.
I’ve finally settled back into the rhythm of things in NYC. For those of you I got to see during my time in Athens, it was great seeing all’y’all. And for those I did not get to see, 10 days (plus 2 days of travel) is hardly enough time for me to do everything I wanted to do and see everyone I wanted to see.
One thing I was constantly asked was the status of my mother’s case. There was a hearing on Friday September 16, 2016 and a ruling has still not been issued. That’s been over 4 months since the hearing and we are still waiting to hear from the appointed judge.
For those who wish for a reminder of what the hearing covered, Lee Shearer wrote a thorough article about the procedure in September and it can be found here. One of my favorite quotes from the article is
Adamson didn’t rule on the two motions Thursday but promised to rule “in a reasonable, timely manner.” But Tolley should in the meantime ask the regents whether they’d be willing to enter mediation with Barrow, the judge said.
If the fairest resolution can be gotten through mediation, “and the judges and lawyers don’t have to be heroes, then we have all won,” Adamson said.
I don’t know about you but I do not call four months without a word “a reasonable, timely manner.” And, in addition to nothing from Adamson, we haven’t heard anything from UGA.
Confession Time
Hey y’all. Jim Jr. here.
So, I have something to confess. I wasn’t that upset this part Saturday when GA Tech (aka that trade school on North Ave.) won the football game in the last 30 seconds. In fact, I was happy that GA Tech slipped in at the last minute and managed to pull off a win. And yes, it all goes back to the Alumni Association “situation.”
Over the past year, my rationale has been “The Athletic Association was not responsible for the issue at the Alumni Association. So I don’t have to feel bad about cheering for the Bulldawgs at football games.” And I don’t know what snapped but on Saturday, I was glad to see the Bulldawgs lose.
Over the past few days, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot support the athletics of a university who supports such disgusting and appalling behavior as the Alumni Association and administration at UGA have displayed.
Now, I know that UGA is to Athens what a mill is to a mill town. Without UGA, Athens would not be the city it is. However, that is no excuse for people to believe themselves above the law and moral responsibilities. While an institution, UGA is still made up of people and, just because they have certain jobs at UGA, does not mean that they are exempt from doing the right thing. But, it is only when we the people remind them that they are held to the same laws and responsibilities as we are.
So, call and e-mail Jere Morehead (I think calling would make more of an impact; it’s too easy to simply move an e-mail to a folder whereas a phone ringing off the hook tends to make more of an impact) and tell him that you want him to do right by Sallyanne Barrow and the issue at the Alumni Association. And, don’t worry, I know that some of you will remain die-hard UGA fans and I won’t attack anything you post on social media but I will not be supporting them in the near future or going to any Alumni events .
I used to say that I chose to attend UGA because I always wanted my diploma to say “University of Georgia” because I was proud of the ties my family had with UGA and I wanted to be a part of it. But, recently, I have had to amend my statement and say, “I wanted my diploma to read UGA because I loved that school but I have never been more embarrassed by their recent cover-up within the Alumni Association and Administration.”
And, who knows? Maybe one day I will be able to step into Sanford Stadium and cheer on the Bulldawgs but it won’t be until this mess with my mother is resolved.
Wells Fargo whistleblower says she flagged fraud years ago
Hey y’all. Jim Jr. here.
It seems this type of fraud story (which might sound familiar to some) is becoming more and more prevalent. The question is when will it end and when will the right thing be done when reporting said fraud and to those who report it. How can we expect people to report fraud when their reports go unheard and they are fired for doing the right thing?
The following story can be found at Wells Fargo whistleblower says she flagged fraud years ago
Wells Fargo whistleblower says she flagged fraud years ago
CBS News (hidden byline)
Illinois is now the second state to punish Wells Fargo for its phony accounts scandal. On Monday the state joined California in suspending investment activity with the bank for a year.Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has claimed he first heard about the creation of fake accounts in 2013, but only on “CBS This Morning,” one whistleblower says she alerted the company years earlier. “I started noticing what I thought were honest mistakes. But then these honest mistakes, you know, became a very clear pattern,” Yesenia Guitron said.
Guitron said she saw strange things happening to customer accounts after she began working at the Wells Fargo branch in St. Helena, California, in 2008, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.
“People ending up with 10-to-15 debit cards that they didn’t request,” Guitron said.
“For one customer?” Blackstone asked.
“For one customer,” Guitron responded.
When her complaints to the branch manager were ignored, she went to human resources and to the bank’s ethics department.
“Constantly emailed them back, you know, this is happening. What did you find? What are we going to do?” Guitron recalled.
Eventually, as her complaints continued, she says the manager of the branch in St. Helena came to her desk, told her she was fired, and escorted her out the door.
She responded in 2010 with a lawsuit claiming she was dismissed because she raised concerns about bank employees “opening accounts without the consent or authorization of the prospective clients.”
“I felt similar to the case with Erin Brockovich, you know, here’s this little me against a big powerful Wells Fargo bank. Nobody’s going to believe what I’m saying,” Guitron said.
A judge dismissed her claims, accepting Wells Fargo’s version that she “failed to meet her sales goals, and that she was thus not performing her job satisfactorily.” The bank sent CBS News a statement reading: “We do not tolerate retaliation against team members who report their concerns,” while noting they “agree with the judge’s finding that her claims of retaliation had no merit.”
Wells Fargo’s CEO has now twice apologized to Congress for the problems Guitron first flagged years ago.
“There is no question, Mr. Chairman, we should have done more sooner,” CEO John Stumpf said at last Thursday’s hearing.
“To me, it’s kind of like, I told you so,” Guitron said. “You know, I wasn’t making things up. I had more than enough evidence to prove that what I was saying and it was a big deal.”
People are listening now, but Guitron paid a price. She said she was out of work for months after being fired. She now works as a property manager but has never returned to banking.
Almost Fudge. Milk’s favorite fudge!!!
Many of you already know about Jim Barrow’s famous Almost Fudge (crème de-menthe brownies) that he has perfected over the last 20 years. Several of you have remarked that these are good enough to be sold. So … we’ve started a bakery because our finances are tight. For the present time, we are delivery only in the 4 county Athens area. It’s famous because it’s delicious.
Regents await ruling on whether fired UGA worker’s whistleblowrer suit can go forward
This lawsuit could be a major factor in future whistleblower lawsuits and basic whistleblower rights/protection. The following article can be found on the Athens Banner Herald website at Regents await ruling on whether fired UGA worker’s whistleblowrer suit can go forward
Regents await ruling on whether fired UGA worker’s whistleblowrer suit can go forwardA whistleblower lawsuit against the Georgia Board of Regents will ultimately be decided by the state Supreme Court, predicted a lawyer for the Regents in Clarke County Superior Court on Friday.
And the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of the Regents will stem a flood of whistleblower lawsuits unleashed after the state legislature passed a law allowing whistleblowers who proved their cases to collect so-called “compensatory” damages in addition to damages they suffered through lost wages or lost employment when employers retaliated against them for bringing wrongdoing to light.
But that law conflicts with part of the state constitution, and the legislature doesn’t have the authority to go against the constitution, attorney Ed Tolley argued on behalf of the Regents.
“It is an important issue when you see the number of whistleblower lawsuits being filed now,” Tolley told Senior Superior Court Judge Robert Adamson in the case of Sallyanne Barrow vs. the Board of Regents. “There’s been an explosion of whistleblower cases since then.”
That’s costing taxpayer money, he argued.
“It is a runaway provision,” he said.
Barrow filed suit Dec. 4, alleging her Dec. 1, 2014 firing from the University of Georgia was retaliation for blowing the whistle on former UGA Alumni Association director Deborah Dietzler.
Barrow went to UGA police and administrators with charges that Dietzler was abusing state policies on leave time and travel, and after an investigation, UGA vice president for external affairs Tom Landrum reassigned Dietzler to another post while she looked for another job.
The office of the state Attorney General later issued an opinion that Dietzler’s actions “likely constituted criminal conduct,” but that prosecution wasn’t advisable because of the way UGA administrators mishandled the case.
Lawyers for the Regents and for Barrow didn’t argue the central factual issue in the case in Friday’s pretrial hearing – whether Barrow was fired in retaliation for bringing Dietzler’s wrongdoing to light, as she claims, or as the state maintains, her sub-par job performance.
In fact, one of the Regents lawyers actually said UGA retaliated against Barrow, but corrected her slip of the tongue later in the hearing. The Regents’ defense also maintains Barrow was terminated for good reason.
Instead, the issues were the ones raised in two motions the Regents lawyers filed asking the judge to dismiss the case because Barrow didn’t file it within a statute of limitations, and to strike down the “compensatory damages” part of it.
Devin Smith, another lawyer for the Regents, told the judge Barrow knew of the alleged retaliation 20 months before she filed her lawsuit, as proved by her letters of complaint to UGA officials and the grievance she filed saying she was being retaliated against after she was transferred to another job with lesser responsibility, but at the same pay.
Under the law, the one-year statute of limitations for filing suit started ticking as soon as she complained of retaliation, Smith argued.
The Regents are also asking the judge to dismiss the case because Barrow didn’t file a letter with the state beforehand saying she intended to sue, as required by another state law.
But each act of retaliation begins a new clock, argued Cheryl Legare, Barrow’s lawyer, and Barrow filed before a year went by following her Dec. 4, 2014 termination.
And the conflict Tolley claims between the state constitution and the Whistleblower Act is not real, she said.
“The Whistleblower Act is not a tort claim. It’s an employment claim,” she said.
State lawmakers had good public policy reasons when they decided whistleblowers should be able to collect compensatory damages, Legare argued – to encourage employees to bring forward their concerns about fraud and abuse “that affect the public coffers.”
Without the possibility of compensatory damages, whistleblowers would have too much to lose, she said.
Adamson didn’t rule on the two motions Thursday, but promised to rule “in a reasonable, timely manner.”
But Tolley should in the meantime ask his clients the Regents whether they’d be willing to enter mediation with Barrow.
If the fairest resolution can be gotten through mediation, “and the judges and lawyers don’t have to be heroes, then we have all won,” Adamson said.
Adamson was appointed to hear the case after all three Western Circuit judges recused themselves from the case.
Hearing for Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit
The hearing for Ed Tolley’s motion to dismiss my lawsuit is Friday at 9:00 in the Athens-Clarke County courthouse. I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers. More information can be found at Georgia whistleblower law unconstitutional, say lawyers defending Board of Regents in lawsuit from the Athens Banner Herald.
Georgia whistleblower law unconstitutional, say lawyers defending Board of Regents in lawsuitPart of a Georgia law allowing whistleblowers to collect damages after being retaliated against by bosses is unconstitutional, lawyers for the state Board of Regents are saying.
And even if it’s not, former University of Georgia accountant Sallyanne Barrow waited too late to file suit for her allegedly wrongful firing, according to lawyers Ed Tolley and Devin Hartness Smith, who are defending the Board of Regents.
They are asking a Superior Court judge to throw the case out on those grounds in court papers filed in August.
The Regents’ lawyers also argued in earlier filings that Barrow’s firing was for good and proper reasons.
Barrow filed suit in December, saying she was retaliated against and ultimately fired after revealing questionable travel expenses and time accounting by her then-boss, former UGA alumni office director Deborah Dietzler.
The retaliatory actions continued under the alumni office’s current director, Meredith Gurley Johnson, according to Barrow’s lawsuit.
According to lawyers representing the Regents, administrators had valid reasons to give Barrow bad performance reviews, however.
But whether Barrow was retaliated against is beside the point, according to the Regents’ most recent filings, which ask Senior Judge Robert Adamson to toss the lawsuit before it goes to trial.
Barrow, associate director of the UGA Office of Alumni Relations, was fired in 2014, months after she told UGA police and other officials that Dietzler was scheduling work-related trips around marathons she ran in around the country. Dietzler also wasn’t recording time she took off from work, she said.
A subsequent UGA internal investigation found “evidence of substantial misconduct and policy violations by Ms. Dietzler,” and further investigation by the state Office of the Attorney General concluded “some of Dietzler’s activities likely constituted criminal conduct that warranted further investigation and possible prosecution.”
But Senior Assistant Attorney General David McLaughlin said prosecuting Dietzler would be “an unwise use of taxpayer resources” because of UGA administrators’ inaction following the audit.
UGA failed to turn over the internal audit to University System of Georgia officials, as required by state policy, and did not discipline or fire Dietzler, but instead shifted her to other duties while she looked for work elsewhere.
UGA administrators said what they did was not a cover-up, but an oversight.
Dietzler found a similar job at the University of Louisville, but resigned after news of the UGA investigation became public.
Barrow says bad performance reviews from Dietzler and Johnson, who ultimately terminated her, were retaliatory and in some instances based on “blatant misrepresentations.”
But even if that’s so, Barrow’s not entitled to collect compensatory damages under the Georgia Whistleblower Act, according to the Regent’s lawyers.
That’s because the Whistleblower Act doesn’t override a 1992 state law called the Georgia Tort Claims Act, which spells out when citizens are allowed to sue the state, and how they must go about doing it.
Under a long-standing legal principle called sovereign immunity, sovereigns or governments are immune from lawsuits except when they grant permission.
The Whistleblower Act doesn’t override that, argue the state’s lawyers.
And the Tort Claims Act also sets a one-year statute of limitations, after which alleged victims of retaliation cannot sue.
Barrow failed to file within the proper time period, they say.
Local Coverage regarding UGA ICLE
Last week, several different news sources reported about the audit and mismanagement of funds at the UGA-affiliated ICLE. Here are two: one from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the other from the Red and Black. The links will take you to the respective articles on the paper’s websites.
Audit: UGA-linked employees misspent money
Audit: UGA-linked employees misspent money
By Janel Davis – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The University of Georgia has dismissed three employees of the UGA-based Institute of Continuing Legal Education following an audit which found financial improprieties among its staff.
The audit, dated Aug. 23, noted several instances of personal use of ICLE resources by employees without proper reimbursement, including the use of ICLE credit cards for personal charges, hotel upgrades and extended hotel stays.
Among its findings:
- About $57,000 in excessive payments for the business use of a personal car for several employees, including almost $1,600 billed by ICLE’s executive director for new tires for his Porsche, and more than $500 for tires and repairs for his wife’s Mercedes, and more than $16,000 in insurance premiums for staff members’ vehicles
- $1,561, mostly related to spa and fitness expenses, were incurred by the IT manager and his wife while on an ICLE-sponsored seminar cruise in November. The money had not been reimbursed and was not identified as personal until auditors inquired in July
- Six ICLE cell phones being used by non-employees, including two phones used by the IT director’s children and four phones used by the former executive director who retired in August 2013
- Other internal control weaknesses including: under reporting taxable employee fringe benefits, possible employee abuse of leave policies, some conflicts of interest policies in time-card approval and external tax and audit preparation
Auditors noted that they were informed that some ICLE documents and emails were still being shredded although employees were told in June not to destroy documents.
According to its website, the Institute of Continuing Legal Education is a nonprofit consortium of the state bar and Georgia’s law schools, which provides continuing education classes for attorneys. It is self-supporting and receives all of its income from tuition charges for the classes and sale of publications. ICLE is governed by a board of trustees, and no University System of Georgia money is used to fund ICLE operations.
All ICLE employees are considered UGA employees, receive UGA benefits and are subject to UGA’s personnel rules. Compensation for ICLE employees is funded by the organiztion and processed by UGA.
The audit, which covered January 2015 through March 2016, was prompted by a February tip by a whistleblower about mismanagement.
UGA law school dismissed the employees, ICLE executive director Stephen Harper, director of projects Brian Davis, office manager Janet Andrews, Aug. 22. All three are appealing the terminations, said a statement provided by UGA law school spokeswoman Heidi Murphy. The ICLE board voted Aug. 23 to suspend the three employees with pay, funded directly by ICLE for 60 days while the board reviews the situation.
Auditors also recommended discipline for staff accountant Karen Sorrells.
The audit also cites the lack of a formal operating agreement between UGA and ICLE and recommends one be put in place.
Three staff members terminated following audit at Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia
- Mia Falcon @miae467
Three staff members from the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia have been terminated following “financial irregularities” found during an audit. The ICLE is a nonprofit service of continuing legal education for those in the profession.
As previously reported by The Red & Black, the UGA Compliance, Ethics and Reporting Hotline reportedly received allegations of financial dishonesty within the ICLE on Feb. 22. An investigation ensued, and an audit was discussed among the Board of Trustees several times until the report was finalized on Aug. 22.
The audit reported use of institute finances for personal actions. These included personal use of ICLE credit cards, upgraded hotel rooms and extended stays credited to master hotel bills from ICLE resort-based events, according to the Limited Review of the Institute of Continuing Legal Education.
In addition, the audit reported instances of failure to report all cases of taxable employee fringe benefits, inaccurate reporting of employee leave and issues in preparation of tax forms, control activities and internal procedures.
The employees in question are suspended with pay for 60 days by ICLE while their board further analyzes the situation, though all three are reportedly appealing their termination, according to Heidi Murphy, the director of communications and public relations for the UGA School of Law. University System of Georgia administrators have received the report and turned it over to the attorney general’s office.
Lawsuit Update
Hey y’all. It’s Jim Jr.
Several people have been asking what the state of the lawsuit is. Yesterday, the Athens Banner Herald published an article focusing on what UGA’s claims are. There is a preliminary hearing on September 16th to determine whether Mom has a valid lawsuit. I know any thoughts/prayers/well-wishes would be appreciated. The article can be found online at Georgia whistleblower law unconstitutional, say lawyers defending Board of Regents in lawsuit
Georgia whistleblower law unconstitutional, say lawyers defending Board of Regents in lawsuit
By Lee Shearer
Part of a Georgia law allowing whistleblowers to collect damages after being retaliated against by bosses is unconstitutional, lawyers for the state Board of Regents are saying.
And even if it’s not, former University of Georgia accountant Sallyanne Barrow waited too late to file suit for her allegedly wrongful firing, according to lawyers Ed Tolley and Devin Hartness Smith, who are defending the Board of Regents.
They are asking a Superior Court judge to throw the case out on those grounds in court papers filed in August.
The Regents’ lawyers also argued in earlier filings that Barrow’s firing was for good and proper reasons.
Barrow filed suit in December, saying she was retaliated against and ultimately fired after revealing questionable travel expenses and time accounting by her then-boss, former UGA alumni office director Deborah Dietzler.
The retaliatory actions continued under the alumni office’s current director, Meredith Gurley Johnson, according to Barrow’s lawsuit.
According to lawyers representing the Regents, administrators had valid reasons to give Barrow bad performance reviews, however.
But whether Barrow was retaliated against is beside the point, according to the Regents’ most recent filings, which ask Senior Judge Robert Adamson to toss the lawsuit before it goes to trial.
Barrow, associate director of the UGA Office of Alumni Relations, was fired in 2014, months after she told UGA police and other officials that Dietzler was scheduling work-related trips around marathons she ran in around the country. Dietzler also wasn’t recording time she took off from work, she said.
A subsequent UGA internal investigation found “evidence of substantial misconduct and policy violations by Ms. Dietzler,” and further investigation by the state Office of the Attorney General concluded “some of Dietzler’s activities likely constituted criminal conduct that warranted further investigation and possible prosecution.”
But Senior Assistant Attorney General David McLaughlin said prosecuting Dietzler would be “an unwise use of taxpayer resources” because of UGA administrators’ inaction following the audit.
UGA failed to turn over the internal audit to University System of Georgia officials, as required by state policy, and did not discipline or fire Dietzler, but instead shifted her to other duties while she looked for work elsewhere.
UGA administrators said what they did was not a cover-up, but an oversight.
Dietzler found a similar job at the University of Louisville, but resigned after news of the UGA investigation became public.
Barrow says bad performance reviews from Dietzler and Johnson, who ultimately terminated her, were retaliatory and in some instances based on “blatant misrepresentations.”
But even if that’s so, Barrow’s not entitled to collect compensatory damages under the Georgia Whistleblower Act, according to the Regent’s lawyers.
That’s because the Whistleblower Act doesn’t override a 1992 state law called the Georgia Tort Claims Act, which spells out when citizens are allowed to sue the state, and how they must go about doing it.
Under a long-standing legal principle called sovereign immunity, sovereigns or governments are immune from lawsuits except when they grant permission.
The Whistleblower Act doesn’t override that, argue the state’s lawyers.
And the Tort Claims Act also sets a one-year statute of limitations, after which alleged victims of retaliation cannot sue.
Barrow failed to file within the proper time period, they say.
ICLE Audit Could Put Tax-Exempt Status at Risk
The following article can be found on The Daily Report at ICLE Audit Could Put Tax-Exempt Status At Risk. Because the website requires signing up to access this article, we have pasted it below but highly recommend you register so you can get more news.
ICLE Audit Could Put Tax-Exempt Status at Risk
R. Robin McDonald, Daily Report
The executive director of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education of Georgia billed the nonprofit organization $1,596 for new tires for his Porsche and more than $500 for tires and repairs for his wife’s Mercedes, according to an audit released last week by the University of Georgia.
The information technology director and his wife ran up nearly $1,300 in personal spa and fitness charges on an ICLE-sponsored Bahamas cruise that were also billed to the organization, which offers mandatory continuing education classes for attorneys that are a requirement of their bar licenses. The IT director also charged two cellphones for his children to the organization’s account as well as cellphones for the ICLE’s former executive director, who retired three years ago, his wife, and his two children—resulting in thousands of dollars in services that were either under-reimbursed or not reimbursed until auditors questioned the expenditures.
These are among the alleged financial irregularities, inappropriately charged personal expenses, and under-reporting of taxable fringe benefits over a 15-month period that were identified by university auditors, who have been reviewing the ICLE books since March. The audit, released by the university on Thursday, was prompted by a whistleblower who called the university’s ethics hotline in February.
The audit suggested that the questionable practices highlighted in the 24-page audit report could put the ICLE’s tax-exempt nonprofit status at risk.
It also raised the specter of a possible cover-up: The audit said that although the nonprofit’s employees were notified in June that they were not to destroy any ICLE documents or delete emails, the auditors were informed by more than one employee that after the meeting “documents of an unknown nature associated with the accountant have continued to be shredded.”
The audit also could change what has been an informal relationship lasting more than 40 years between ICLE—a consortium of the State Bar of Georgia and the state’s law schools—and the university. Under the arrangement, the ICLE’s 20 staff members have been paid by UGA and received health and retirement benefits through the university, which is then reimbursed by the ICLE. The auditors recommended the need for a formal operating agreement “that clearly defines the relationship, roles and responsibilities” of the ICLE, its board and the university.
On Aug. 22, UGA provided the ICLE board, which includes multiple former state bar presidents and law school deans, with a draft of the audit and notified the board that ICLE executive director Stephen Harper, IT director Brian Davis, and Janet Andrews, the organization’s chief operating officer and office manager, had been dismissed. The university also recommended disciplinary action against staff accountant Karen Sorrells.
That same day, the ICLE board reinstated all three staff members who had been terminated, but suspended them and Sorrells for 60 days with pay while it conducts its own audit.
Heidi Murphy, spokeswoman for UGA’s law school, said the university is no longer paying the wages and benefits of the three staff members whom the university decided to dismiss; the ICLE is paying their salaries while they remain on suspension. All three have appealed their dismissals, she said.
On Monday, Harper’s attorney, Jeffrey Bogart, called the audit “completely one-sided.” Harper, he said, “is eager to present facts to both the ICLE board and the UGA appellate body which will clarify and lay to rest any and all concerns raised in the audit.” The lawyer called the alleged incidents of financial impropriety “de minimus at best,” adding that they “will be fully and completely explained when Steve is given the opportunity.”
The Daily Report was unable to reach Davis for comment. Sorrells did not respond to a voice mail left at her home. The newspaper attempted to reach Andrews through her Facebook page without success. Citing privacy concerns, ICLE board chairman Robert Kauffman declined Friday to release contact information for the staff members facing disciplinary action.
The audit highlights “numerous instances” of personal charges on ICLE credit cards; thousands of dollars for hotel upgrades, including rooms that cost as much as $599 a night when standard rooms cost less than $300; hotel stays charged to ICLE that both preceded and extended past the conclusion of ICLE-sponsored conferences; and expenses incurred for staff members’ spouses. The audit acknowledged the ICLE board considers the presence of spouses as “advantageous” at the organization’s resort-based events, and auditors said they were informed by an ICLE employee that there is no explicit requirement by ICLE that spouses have to have a business purpose in order for spousal travel expenses to be paid. However, those expenses are taxable fringe benefits under IRS guidelines, according to the audit, and questioned whether they were reported as such.
Auditors found that reimbursements for personal expenses were tardy, insufficient, or did not occur. The auditors noted that in one case, Davis, the IT director, billed more than $1,500 in personal charges while on an ICLE cruise in November that he did not reimburse until auditors inquired about the charges in July of this year. When questioned by auditors about the expense, Davis said “he assumed that the bill was the charge for the cabin” although auditors said the executive director had paid for both his cabin and the IT director’s cabin with his company credit card four months before the cruise.
Auditors also noted two instances where Harper collected cash while selling books at an ICLE event. Instead of giving the cash to the staff accountant, he kept $400, asking her to bill him for the amount, the audit said.
When questioned about the cash, Harper “did not remember exactly why he retained this cash,” the audit said. “Due to a lack of a sufficient audit trail, we were unable to verify that all cash collected at each of the respective events had been properly accounted [for] and deposited.”
Auditors also uncovered a total of $57,125 in what they identified as “excessive payments for business use of a personal car” for multiple employees. That included $16,610 in insurance premiums for staff members’ personal vehicles and more than $8,000 in car service and repair charges, including $576 for repairs to Harper’s wife’s Mercedes and new tires for his Porsche. Harper told auditors that the repairs to his wife’s car were related to damage incurred while he was using her car for business. He also said that he used his Porsche for business, and his lease contract required that tires be returned with specific tread requirements.
Auditors found that no direction had been given to ICLE employees as to how to calculate or track their business and personal miles. Harper, they said, “informed us that they do not distinguish home-to-office mileage, even though the IRS has determined that personal commuting miles are not tax-deductible. He also informed us that he merely estimates his business and personal miles traveled at the end of the year.”
Auditors said that failing to report any personal auto expenses paid by the organization that exceed the IRS standard mileage rate is a taxable fringe benefit but was not reported as such by the ICLE.
The audit also pointed to what it identified as a possible abuse of personal leave by the office manager, who it said failed to report at least 137.5 hours of leave. It also identified conflicts of interest involving payroll, leave time and annual audit reports, including the office manager’s approval of biweekly time cards for her sister, an ICLE administrative assistant. The executive director’s travel expense reimbursements were also approved by the office manager, who was his subordinate, without any independent review.
Auditors also singled out as a conflict of interest the preparation of the ICLE’s annual audit report and taxes by a firm where, for years, the managing principal who signed off on both the audit and tax form was accountant Karen Sorrells’ cousin. In 2016, at the request of the ICLE board, Sorrells hired a new accounting firm. The accountant assigned to the ICLE account, according to the audit, was “an acquaintance of the accountant’s spouse.”
What's A Poor Whistleblower to Do? 