Message to the Board about the Embezzlement
Date: Mar 15, 2006
To: Point Aquarius Board of Directors and Helen Norris
From: Ralph Splawski
Re: Mar 14, 2006 Meeting on Embezzlement of POA Funds
I am writing directly to the entire board and Helen Norris because I want each of you to review the facts I have uncovered without the editing of any political spin doctors, namely certain fellow board members. In my opinion, each of you has a serious problem with the embezzlement issue that needs immediate attention or you will risk being implicated. Covering it up is not going to work any longer. It is out in the open for all to see as it should have been from the very beginning.
As each of you already knows, I requested the opportunity to review all records of the association concerning the embezzlement by Leslie Marie Holbert. In all past comments from the board, it was always Al Morin who was identified as the one handling the embezzlement. In an obvious plan to distract my investigation, some guy named Bob Murphy substituted himself for Al Morin in our Mar 14, 2006 meeting. He claimed he thought I had a vendetta against Mr. Morin. Vendetta or not, the bottom line is that the one who allegedly knows the most about the embezzlement was not there. It doesn’t matter whether Al Morin just didn’t have enough backbone to answer a few questions from a concerned resident or whether this masquerade was just a feeble attempt to keep me from getting at the truth about the theft of the association funds. It did not work. The only thing that did work was I had to sit and listen to Bob Murphy say “I don’t know” to most questions. You folks really didn’t think that was going to stop my investigation, did you? Sad!
During this Mar 14th meeting, I briefly discussed my concern for the total lack of disclosure about this crime. Mr. Murphy seemed surprised and said that the entire board had been made fully aware of all details. He also claimed the matter was fully discussed at board meeting attended by residents. I asked for copies of the minutes of these meetings. It appears his definition of “fully disclosed” and mine are quite different. From comments I have heard from board members who are not part of the “inner circle” the details provided to the board were far from complete by anyone’s definition. Maybe the inner circle got all the facts, and, if they did, they are part of the cover up too. Perhaps my findings which follow will help clarify the matter further.
Leslie Marie Holbert went to work as our office manager on June 1, 2003 when Investment Management took over handling POA affairs. According to court documents, she pleaded guilty to MISAPPLICATION FIDUCIARY PROPERTY and that said defendant committed said offense in Montgomery County, Texas on June 30, 2003 as charged in the indictment. Exactly what she did on June 30, 2003 could not be explained by Mr. Murphy and may not have been carefully investigated by either the Sheriff, Al Morin or whoever for the POA. Did she steal cash on June 30, 2003? Property? What?
The single sheet of the board’s documentation reveals that she began forging checks with #9480 on Sep 19, 2003 in the amount of $2,000.00. Check #9484 was written for $3,000.00 on Sep 25, 2003. Before the end of 2003, at total of 7 checks for $31, 358.36 had cleared our bank account. No one apparently checked into the time frame between the start of Leslie’s employment on June 1, 2003 and the date of the first forged check on Sep 19, 2003. Likewise, no one noticed that over $31,000 of association funds had been spent on something called Leslie Holbert, as she was the payee on all checks. Is this an example of prudent financial management of association assets?
The spree continued in 2004 with 12 more checks totaling $38, 147.04 with the last one clearing our account on May 1, 2004. The total theft had now grown to over $69,000 and still no one noticed. When I asked how all these checks could have cleared the account, I got the usual reply, “I don’t know.” Mr. Murphy said that Marvin Knoll, the previous property manager, was supposed to close this account, but he did not do it. Now, tell me, what does that answer have to do with the question of how these checks could have cleared the account?
When I asked who could have made deposits to this account to facilitate the clearing of these forged checks, Mr. Murphy didn’t know. I asked if it could have been Leslie, or maybe Brenda Mitchell who was secretary/treasurer at the time. Same answer “I don’t know.” Maybe it was the Easter Bunny! Could it be that all this money was just sitting in this account all along because no checks ever bounced according to Helen Norris? Mr. Murphy could not explain how the checks cleared. Statements showing the average balance of the account during the cycle of thievery were not available and I presume that was never part of the checking process.
In what may be the most astonishing part of an investigation of $70,000 (and may be growing), I was told there is no written documentation from Al Morin on any of this. There is no itemization of which facts were checked and what, if anything, was verified. Although I asked to see all documentary reports from the POA related to this crime, I was shown only one sheet of paper which was a list of the forged checks prepared recently by Helen Norris, I think. That’s it! Since the forged check numbers were generally in ascending order, I asked to see the 4 checks whose numbers were missing from the list of forged checks. Guess what, they were not available either! Are these checks more of the forged variety that were missed? Who knows!
The career of Leslie Marie Holbert ended with our POA in May 2004, but no one knew the exact date. Whether she quit or got fired could not be explained. Maybe she just ran out of blank checks and decided to move on. The Sheriff’s report says that, “Leslie’s employment was mutually terminated as she was not happy with her job and Point Aquarius was not pleased with her performance.”
Finally, about 9 months after the forgeries started, less than half of them were discovered, presumably by Al Morin. A report was made by Al Morin and Steve Durham of Investment Management Co on Jun 4, 2004 to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office concerning 9 checks totaling $30,820.85. The affidavits were signed by Al Morin on Jun 14, 2004, but there is nothing in the file to indicate that Brenda Mitchell, whose name was apparently forged as well, took part in any in the reporting of the crime. Al Morin contacted the investigator, T. L. Overstreet, at the Sheriff’s Office on Jun 17, 2003 to advise that an additional 10 checks had also been found bringing the new total to $69,505.60. There is no explanation of why the second batch of checks was not found earlier. Do these facts taken from the sheriff’s reports give anyone confidence that this was a thorough investigation?
Although the details of what actually got investigated are sketchy because Al Morin was not there to speak and there is no written report or even any notes, Mr. Murphy did advise that no internal investigation was done by a qualified third party auditor who is trained in fraud investigation. Per Mr. Murphy, “It was found and turned over to the Sheriff for them to investigate. There was no need to look any further.” Now come on, are we to expect the Sheriff’s Office to conduct a thorough review of our financial records?
The nagging question that seems to have been overlooked by Al Morin and Bob Murphy is that Leslie pleaded guilty to a crime committed on June 30, 2003 and the first forged check was written on Sep 19, 2003 and cleared on Sep 22, 2003. What really happened between Jun 30th and Sep 19th? Why would she plead guilty to a crime committed on Jun 30, 2003 if she didn’t start stealing our money until almost 3 months later? In my opinion, that is a huge hole to leave open in this case. Apparently Al Morin doesn’t think so, but he wasn’t there to explain it. Were there more forged checks written before check #9480 which was the first one on the POA list? I had asked to see check #9476, 9477, 9478, 9479, but I was told they were not available.
As board members, each of you has the fiduciary duty to insure that our association is properly reimbursed for all funds embezzled. All checks written and/or cleared in June, July, August and September of 2003 should be carefully examined to see if there are any additional fraudulent items. If there are, amended claims should be filed immediately for reimbursement from Investment Management Co..
Let me make it very clear that I am not accusing anyone on the board of anything. Rather I am requesting a re-opening of this investigation to determine if more of our money was lost than originally thought. I hope not, but most logical residents would raise the same questions that I am raising if they reviewed the facts of the case. If the board refuses to take any action on it’s own, I may be forced to take all details to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office myself.
Incidentally, all facts that I have used in this explanation are available to anyone who requests them from the authorities. Kindly get your hands on all the evidence and come to your own conclusions if you don’t trust mine. I have tried my best to state everything accurately because I am just looking for a fair and honest review of what happened. I am not interested in covering up anything or expanding on the truth. I have a copy of the Sheriff’s file, I went to the District Clerk’s Office to review the criminal case file and I discussed the case with Edd Jordan, investigator with the District Attorney’s Office.
It is interesting that my copies of the Sheriff’s investigation are much more complete than the association’s copy that I was shown at our meeting on Mar 14. 2006. A suspicious person might think that what I was shown an edited version with incrementing evidence removed, but I believe what I was told. “That’s all we have”, per Helen Norris. Maybe the POA should get the complete file through a “Request for Public Information” as I did. I suggest that all board members demand that they be allowed to read it.
In my opinion, the entire investigation into the embezzlement was sloppy and incomplete at best. It is unbelievable that a crime totaling $70,000 (and maybe more) does not have one shred of written documentation by the one who handled it. For those on the board who truly want to serve the community in a fair and unbiased way this is your opportunity to begin anew with the re-opening of this case. It should be done without interference from Al Morin who will likely try to continue the cover up. If I were on the board, it is my opinion that this bungled investigation is enough to ask for his immediate resignation.
Some times good ideas fail miserably simply because of bad execution. That may be what happened with the hiring of Investment Management Co. to run our affairs. Common sense should have caused safeguards to be erected, but they were not. After all, this was a new company that we had no experience with that was hired to do job that our own employee used to do. Would you hire a financial advisor to handle your affairs without ever checking to see what they are doing?
Keeping this entire series of events under tight raps was likely a high priority to avoid embarrassment. I agree that giving a box of checks to a new employee and providing no oversight can lead to embarrassing things as it did in this case. It is unbelievable that 19 forged checks over more than 9 months were covered with our funds and no body noticed it. Holy ____!
Covering up of the total incompetence of those charged with protecting our financial assets Is not what the residents want or expect. If it had been explained fully in plain English from the beginning, we would not have been happy but it would be much easier to accept with less animosity. No cover up was needed. Telling the truth is not a bad thing! The residents of Point Aquarius have never gotten any straight talk from our board and that is really the heart of the problem. People who thrive in secrecy usually have something to hide which is why our board is held in such low esteem by many.
My popularity is probably not high with some of the inner circle that temporarily controls the board, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m not going anywhere and I’ll continue checking on those we are supposed to be able to trust. In fact, I am currently working on more shenanigans I have uncovered. I just want people to do the right thing and tell the truth about what they do. If misdeeds continue, I will try my best to correct them. Some day soon, a new group will take control of the board and hopefully make changes to provide a more open and democratic environment which will benefit the entire community. If they don’t, I’ll be watching them with the same vigor.
As some of you may know, I found it necessary to write a blog (web log):
http://pointaquarius.blogspot.com/
This is a way to keep my fellow residents informed about what is going on in our community and especially my section. My findings about the embezzlement will be posted as usual along with other announcements of interest to the community. It is truly unfortunate that the newsworthy items of late are all negative. With the clubhouse mess, the re-written by-laws, the embezzlement and assorted other things, the positive stuff has to take a back seat.
If any board member finds an inadvertent error in my text, please let me know what you think the correction should be. I’m not perfect, but I do know how to use a “spell checker”. The board has clearly demonstrated that they do not. If your opinion differs from mine about anything I have posted, please add your comments by clicking on the “comments” at the end of each piece. As I have said repeatedly, a democratic society always has room for more than one opinion. Come on inner circle, speak up!
To: Point Aquarius Board of Directors and Helen Norris
From: Ralph Splawski
Re: Mar 14, 2006 Meeting on Embezzlement of POA Funds
I am writing directly to the entire board and Helen Norris because I want each of you to review the facts I have uncovered without the editing of any political spin doctors, namely certain fellow board members. In my opinion, each of you has a serious problem with the embezzlement issue that needs immediate attention or you will risk being implicated. Covering it up is not going to work any longer. It is out in the open for all to see as it should have been from the very beginning.
As each of you already knows, I requested the opportunity to review all records of the association concerning the embezzlement by Leslie Marie Holbert. In all past comments from the board, it was always Al Morin who was identified as the one handling the embezzlement. In an obvious plan to distract my investigation, some guy named Bob Murphy substituted himself for Al Morin in our Mar 14, 2006 meeting. He claimed he thought I had a vendetta against Mr. Morin. Vendetta or not, the bottom line is that the one who allegedly knows the most about the embezzlement was not there. It doesn’t matter whether Al Morin just didn’t have enough backbone to answer a few questions from a concerned resident or whether this masquerade was just a feeble attempt to keep me from getting at the truth about the theft of the association funds. It did not work. The only thing that did work was I had to sit and listen to Bob Murphy say “I don’t know” to most questions. You folks really didn’t think that was going to stop my investigation, did you? Sad!
During this Mar 14th meeting, I briefly discussed my concern for the total lack of disclosure about this crime. Mr. Murphy seemed surprised and said that the entire board had been made fully aware of all details. He also claimed the matter was fully discussed at board meeting attended by residents. I asked for copies of the minutes of these meetings. It appears his definition of “fully disclosed” and mine are quite different. From comments I have heard from board members who are not part of the “inner circle” the details provided to the board were far from complete by anyone’s definition. Maybe the inner circle got all the facts, and, if they did, they are part of the cover up too. Perhaps my findings which follow will help clarify the matter further.
Leslie Marie Holbert went to work as our office manager on June 1, 2003 when Investment Management took over handling POA affairs. According to court documents, she pleaded guilty to MISAPPLICATION FIDUCIARY PROPERTY and that said defendant committed said offense in Montgomery County, Texas on June 30, 2003 as charged in the indictment. Exactly what she did on June 30, 2003 could not be explained by Mr. Murphy and may not have been carefully investigated by either the Sheriff, Al Morin or whoever for the POA. Did she steal cash on June 30, 2003? Property? What?
The single sheet of the board’s documentation reveals that she began forging checks with #9480 on Sep 19, 2003 in the amount of $2,000.00. Check #9484 was written for $3,000.00 on Sep 25, 2003. Before the end of 2003, at total of 7 checks for $31, 358.36 had cleared our bank account. No one apparently checked into the time frame between the start of Leslie’s employment on June 1, 2003 and the date of the first forged check on Sep 19, 2003. Likewise, no one noticed that over $31,000 of association funds had been spent on something called Leslie Holbert, as she was the payee on all checks. Is this an example of prudent financial management of association assets?
The spree continued in 2004 with 12 more checks totaling $38, 147.04 with the last one clearing our account on May 1, 2004. The total theft had now grown to over $69,000 and still no one noticed. When I asked how all these checks could have cleared the account, I got the usual reply, “I don’t know.” Mr. Murphy said that Marvin Knoll, the previous property manager, was supposed to close this account, but he did not do it. Now, tell me, what does that answer have to do with the question of how these checks could have cleared the account?
When I asked who could have made deposits to this account to facilitate the clearing of these forged checks, Mr. Murphy didn’t know. I asked if it could have been Leslie, or maybe Brenda Mitchell who was secretary/treasurer at the time. Same answer “I don’t know.” Maybe it was the Easter Bunny! Could it be that all this money was just sitting in this account all along because no checks ever bounced according to Helen Norris? Mr. Murphy could not explain how the checks cleared. Statements showing the average balance of the account during the cycle of thievery were not available and I presume that was never part of the checking process.
In what may be the most astonishing part of an investigation of $70,000 (and may be growing), I was told there is no written documentation from Al Morin on any of this. There is no itemization of which facts were checked and what, if anything, was verified. Although I asked to see all documentary reports from the POA related to this crime, I was shown only one sheet of paper which was a list of the forged checks prepared recently by Helen Norris, I think. That’s it! Since the forged check numbers were generally in ascending order, I asked to see the 4 checks whose numbers were missing from the list of forged checks. Guess what, they were not available either! Are these checks more of the forged variety that were missed? Who knows!
The career of Leslie Marie Holbert ended with our POA in May 2004, but no one knew the exact date. Whether she quit or got fired could not be explained. Maybe she just ran out of blank checks and decided to move on. The Sheriff’s report says that, “Leslie’s employment was mutually terminated as she was not happy with her job and Point Aquarius was not pleased with her performance.”
Finally, about 9 months after the forgeries started, less than half of them were discovered, presumably by Al Morin. A report was made by Al Morin and Steve Durham of Investment Management Co on Jun 4, 2004 to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office concerning 9 checks totaling $30,820.85. The affidavits were signed by Al Morin on Jun 14, 2004, but there is nothing in the file to indicate that Brenda Mitchell, whose name was apparently forged as well, took part in any in the reporting of the crime. Al Morin contacted the investigator, T. L. Overstreet, at the Sheriff’s Office on Jun 17, 2003 to advise that an additional 10 checks had also been found bringing the new total to $69,505.60. There is no explanation of why the second batch of checks was not found earlier. Do these facts taken from the sheriff’s reports give anyone confidence that this was a thorough investigation?
Although the details of what actually got investigated are sketchy because Al Morin was not there to speak and there is no written report or even any notes, Mr. Murphy did advise that no internal investigation was done by a qualified third party auditor who is trained in fraud investigation. Per Mr. Murphy, “It was found and turned over to the Sheriff for them to investigate. There was no need to look any further.” Now come on, are we to expect the Sheriff’s Office to conduct a thorough review of our financial records?
The nagging question that seems to have been overlooked by Al Morin and Bob Murphy is that Leslie pleaded guilty to a crime committed on June 30, 2003 and the first forged check was written on Sep 19, 2003 and cleared on Sep 22, 2003. What really happened between Jun 30th and Sep 19th? Why would she plead guilty to a crime committed on Jun 30, 2003 if she didn’t start stealing our money until almost 3 months later? In my opinion, that is a huge hole to leave open in this case. Apparently Al Morin doesn’t think so, but he wasn’t there to explain it. Were there more forged checks written before check #9480 which was the first one on the POA list? I had asked to see check #9476, 9477, 9478, 9479, but I was told they were not available.
As board members, each of you has the fiduciary duty to insure that our association is properly reimbursed for all funds embezzled. All checks written and/or cleared in June, July, August and September of 2003 should be carefully examined to see if there are any additional fraudulent items. If there are, amended claims should be filed immediately for reimbursement from Investment Management Co..
Let me make it very clear that I am not accusing anyone on the board of anything. Rather I am requesting a re-opening of this investigation to determine if more of our money was lost than originally thought. I hope not, but most logical residents would raise the same questions that I am raising if they reviewed the facts of the case. If the board refuses to take any action on it’s own, I may be forced to take all details to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office myself.
Incidentally, all facts that I have used in this explanation are available to anyone who requests them from the authorities. Kindly get your hands on all the evidence and come to your own conclusions if you don’t trust mine. I have tried my best to state everything accurately because I am just looking for a fair and honest review of what happened. I am not interested in covering up anything or expanding on the truth. I have a copy of the Sheriff’s file, I went to the District Clerk’s Office to review the criminal case file and I discussed the case with Edd Jordan, investigator with the District Attorney’s Office.
It is interesting that my copies of the Sheriff’s investigation are much more complete than the association’s copy that I was shown at our meeting on Mar 14. 2006. A suspicious person might think that what I was shown an edited version with incrementing evidence removed, but I believe what I was told. “That’s all we have”, per Helen Norris. Maybe the POA should get the complete file through a “Request for Public Information” as I did. I suggest that all board members demand that they be allowed to read it.
In my opinion, the entire investigation into the embezzlement was sloppy and incomplete at best. It is unbelievable that a crime totaling $70,000 (and maybe more) does not have one shred of written documentation by the one who handled it. For those on the board who truly want to serve the community in a fair and unbiased way this is your opportunity to begin anew with the re-opening of this case. It should be done without interference from Al Morin who will likely try to continue the cover up. If I were on the board, it is my opinion that this bungled investigation is enough to ask for his immediate resignation.
Some times good ideas fail miserably simply because of bad execution. That may be what happened with the hiring of Investment Management Co. to run our affairs. Common sense should have caused safeguards to be erected, but they were not. After all, this was a new company that we had no experience with that was hired to do job that our own employee used to do. Would you hire a financial advisor to handle your affairs without ever checking to see what they are doing?
Keeping this entire series of events under tight raps was likely a high priority to avoid embarrassment. I agree that giving a box of checks to a new employee and providing no oversight can lead to embarrassing things as it did in this case. It is unbelievable that 19 forged checks over more than 9 months were covered with our funds and no body noticed it. Holy ____!
Covering up of the total incompetence of those charged with protecting our financial assets Is not what the residents want or expect. If it had been explained fully in plain English from the beginning, we would not have been happy but it would be much easier to accept with less animosity. No cover up was needed. Telling the truth is not a bad thing! The residents of Point Aquarius have never gotten any straight talk from our board and that is really the heart of the problem. People who thrive in secrecy usually have something to hide which is why our board is held in such low esteem by many.
My popularity is probably not high with some of the inner circle that temporarily controls the board, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m not going anywhere and I’ll continue checking on those we are supposed to be able to trust. In fact, I am currently working on more shenanigans I have uncovered. I just want people to do the right thing and tell the truth about what they do. If misdeeds continue, I will try my best to correct them. Some day soon, a new group will take control of the board and hopefully make changes to provide a more open and democratic environment which will benefit the entire community. If they don’t, I’ll be watching them with the same vigor.
As some of you may know, I found it necessary to write a blog (web log):
http://pointaquarius.blogspot.com/
This is a way to keep my fellow residents informed about what is going on in our community and especially my section. My findings about the embezzlement will be posted as usual along with other announcements of interest to the community. It is truly unfortunate that the newsworthy items of late are all negative. With the clubhouse mess, the re-written by-laws, the embezzlement and assorted other things, the positive stuff has to take a back seat.
If any board member finds an inadvertent error in my text, please let me know what you think the correction should be. I’m not perfect, but I do know how to use a “spell checker”. The board has clearly demonstrated that they do not. If your opinion differs from mine about anything I have posted, please add your comments by clicking on the “comments” at the end of each piece. As I have said repeatedly, a democratic society always has room for more than one opinion. Come on inner circle, speak up!
posted by Ralph Splawski at 4:23 PM
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