Ask Officer Michelle – Question #222

Posted by egouveia73

I volunteer as a member on the board of directors at a local non-profit youth sports organization.  It has come to our attention that a specific person who has been handling the funds, has not deposited all that she has collected.  The amount that is missing is over $1500, is there something we can do about it?  If so, can you point me in the right direction?

Dear egouveia73,

What a shame!  You first must be able to prove that this person handling the organization’s money “stole” the $1,500.  Penal code section 503 covers embezzlement which is the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been entrusted.  The penalty ranges from a misdemeanor to a felony depending on the dollar amount.  Have you confronted this person?  Audit your records so that you can be sure that there was no mistake.  There is a difference between absentmindedness and maliciousness.  Does this woman still have the money in a drawer and hasn’t yet deposited it, or did she spend it on a designer handbag?

In the future, I would suggest that you have a co-signing person assigned to the money so that you can keep better controls.  If you are able to prove that this woman took the money, I would urge you to file a police report in the appropriate jurisdiction. 
Good luck!

Officer Michelle

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Answers From Officer Michelle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.