The Associated Press
Thursday, June 28, 2007; 11:51 PM
OGDEN, Utah -- A secretary who embezzled $1.12 million from a school foundation has advice for her former bosses: Hey, get better auditors.Not surprisingly, Schmitt Griffiths Smith is the same company that audits Emerald City, BTW!
Denise Aughney said her crimes would have been discovered years ago if someone would have looked closer. She pleaded guilty in April to theft, money laundering and forgery and was sent to prison June 7.
In an April 28 letter to the Weber School District, Aughney wrote: "I would hope that some things have changed and new policies are in place, that this is not so easily done again."
If auditors "had done their job this could have been caught during any of the seven years. I never changed any information during an audit to hide my crimes," she said in the letter, obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
Aughney took trips to Las Vegas, Disneyland and Hawaii and purchased a Camaro and a Waverunner, among other items. She wrote checks from the Weber School Foundation to cover credit card bills.
Schmitt Griffiths Smith & Co., the firm that had conducted audits for the district, declined to comment."
Query?
Is anybody with a brain (other than Dorothy Littrell and us) watching the Boss Godfrey store?
Does anybody remember Arthur Anderson, Inc.?
"Think straight, talk straight" was Arthur Anderson's earlier, pre-Enron motto, before they became the embarrassment of the accountancy trade.
SGS & Co.'s recent motto seems to be: "No Comment."
Food for thought?
31 comments:
That will be Godfrey's defense:
"Well, why do you think I hired my uncle, best buds, and other sycophants? They were supposed to be looking out for me! I've been so busy THINKING and ENVISIONING great stuff for my kingdom, that some details were overlooked. Like integrity...it used to be higher than anyone else's in the room, but then the room got so darn big, I couldn't keep track of it any longer.
"I had attorneys too. What were they doing? Al Capone had attorneys. THEY looked out for him! Mine were just trying to edit Ellison's land grab deal...so I had to put Lockwood in the Justice Court. She was getting to be an embarrassment. Sweet woman, but, well, you know. I need more academic types around me.
I'd say I'm sorry for swindling the taxpayers, but you guys made it so easy! You should shoulder the blame....after all, I was building a legacy AND a gondola to nowhere.
Where were you?
On visiting day next, could someone, one of my FOM'S, please bring me a mirror? Full length, preferably. I want to see how my new clothes fit that my special tailors whipped up for me. Ooops, not a good word to use in the joint."
Rudi:
On the general topic of the citizenry keeping an eye on their government, I was just on the official Boise, ID city website and found this listing, right there on the Home Page:
Public Comment Invited on 2008-09 Budget
Proposals include five additional police officers, a new whitewater park, and more than two dozen other initiatives designed to protect Boise's livability.
Watch the Budget Workshop
Summary
Review the Budget
E-mail the Mayor
E-mail the Council
Each item in the italicized list above is a link. Apparently they tape Council workshops and put them on line.
Is there any reason Ogden cannot do something like this? Is there any reason it shouldn't? And tapes of Council meetings too? [not just sound recordings]. The camera system is already in place in the Council chamber, after all.
LOL The city council won't even broadcast their meaningless meetings on channel 17.
Don't even dream they would show work sessions to anyone.
I won't say any names, but there are members who know they would be an embarrassment should the publiic actually see them in session.
WE understand what you mean, dream on...
Godfrey lackey Brandon Stephenson would be seriously embarrased... if ever broadcast to the voters on TEEVEE!
Oh I'm sure there is at least one other.
Schmitt Griffiths Smith didn't notice blatant embezzlement going on for seven straight years?
It's no wonder Godfrey consistently gets away with his shit.
"Oh I'm sure there is at least one other. "
Good point!
Bill Cook is another who should be sent to the dust-heap by our new council 1n 2008.
Rudi and Dream On:
OK, OK, snarking is fun... but I wonder if it wouldn't be worthwhile to try to get the SE engaged on something like this, and to find one or two Council members willing to propose it. This sort of thing is done by mid-sized cities all over the land, I think, and there's no reason we cannot, or should not, do it here --- not perhaps every work session, but certainly on major matters like the budget. With Editorial backing, if we can get it, and a couple of members willing to propose an ordinance making it possible, it might be difficult for the rest to refuse. Particularly during an election cycle.
I also like very much the idea of the Boise City home page actively seeking public input on the budget, and making it so easy for citizens to see the budget proposal, to watch explanations of various elements of it via work session tape and to contact both the mayor and council with comments. Right there prominently on the city home page.
Of course, Boise has an advantage. It doesn't have to run two year old propaganda for a flatland gondola pretending it will go to Snow Basin on the city's homepage over and over and over again. Lucky bastards....
One thing the Boise City homepage that isn't mentioned... gondolas...
Directly adjacent to Boise City is Bogus Basin... a fairly decent community ski resort whose night-skiing lights can be seen above the downtown Idaho Capitol City on any winter night.
If any western American city OUGHT to have a gondola running from the city center to a REAL ski resort... It's Boise.
Malan's Basin is NOT a legitimate ski area.
Bogus Basin IS.
Perhaps the mind-numbed Gondolists should trot their sorry act up north.
It might actually work -- UP THERE.
Curm,
Are you drinking more than coffee in those shops where you sit and eavesdrop? (You've told us you do that!)
Several of us obstructionist types have repeatedly asked the council to get the meetings on OUR Ch 17. Only dead eyes are turned on us.
Cook, Stephenson, Safsten, Garcia? Mmhmm...more than one or two don't want to be tv stars.
We've:
I've been on them about that too, for two years. The reply usually is that it would be prohibitively expensive to televise them live. What I find attractive about Boise's solution [besides the general attitude of wanting public input and making it easy for people to get information and provide it] is that it does not involve the expense of live televising.
Curm,
I'm with you. It's time we went back to the Council and made our pitch.
What say you?
It may be good for YOU to relate the Boise way of doing things with and for the public.
Rudi,
Your idea, I'm afraid, is bogus. Bogus Basin is about 10 miles as the crow flies from downtown Boise. A gondola connection wouldn't be practical, because of the expense and because the ride would take nearly an hour each way. Compare this to the mayor's proposed two-gondola system, which would take about 45 minutes to deliver a skier from downtown to the top of Snowbasin (if it ever were to connect to Snowbasin).
Don't be such a NAYSAYER DAN!
We say the Boise-Bogus gondola plan is a dang fine idea!
A mere ten miles of gondola cable is nothin at all...
When you're headed to a REAL ski area.
Just imagine yourself sliding around Bogus Basin in yer Descente (tm) Gear on your little skis or snowboard...
With all yer buddies watching you from Downtown Boise!
This will put Boise on the map.
Idahoans are already raving about it, we suspect.
I have wondered why the Weber School Board Foundation hasn't filed a lawsuit against their auditors before now to recover the million dollars.
And also why haven't they filed a suit for recovery from their own Foundation Board who should have had an Audit Committee to watch the money.
The purpose of a certified audit of balances is not to detect fraud but there are several basic principles of auditng that can usually detect fraud when the principles are properly applied.
In Auditing 101 the first rules are to determine the accuracy of all figures furnished by the client.
You determine the accuracy by starting with counting the cash on hand. Cash on hand also includes verifying bank balances.
You verify bank balances by sampling transactions that have gone through the various bank accounts - Looking at cancelled checks for forgeries and endorsements and amounts that could have been doctored and tracking the amount of the checks as recorded to the actual records.
This rule is very basic and is a required procedure. There is no excuse for failure to perform this function of an audit.
Sharon:
I'm game... but I can't until Sept. [Teaching Tues nights until the end of the summer.]
Hey congratulations Denise! you made the #2 slot today on Olberman's Countdown, "Worlds Stupidest Criminals". It made me so proud, and there was just a hint of sympathy from Keith for all of Weber County for being so verily duped. Even if he mispronounced it Weber, as in the grill.
Myself, I would have put Weber County at the top of the list for "Worlds Stupidest Victims".
Yee-haw!
This is an interesting issue because I remember that on Nov. 28th 2006 the city council spent 14.5 million on the mall site using state road money, and some of that was for the parking plaza. Can they do that? Is this 14.5 million in addition to the 21.5 million for the fat cats and gold gym? Anyone care to find out thought the minutes of the meeting. This was the RDA meeting? Why oh why doesn’t any one know about this. I’m sure that Hansen will bring this up in the debates. It seems that he is the only one that cares.
History of Ogden:
What debates?
There will be debates even if Hansen as to call the mayor out on them.
Oh, I can't wait for the feds to cuff Godfrey, Patterson, Harmer, and the rest of the gang!
Will they do it on a Tuesday night?
Oh, for hell sakes. You have John (dumbass) taking care of the books, doing what he's told to do by none other than the little guy on nine. I'm pretty sure John wants to keep his job. That's the problem of working for a bunch of retarded elected officials, the employees are at the mercy of these spineless bastards, all they want to do is keep their job and retire. But they are intimidated into doing the covert cover-ups that the on high elected officials want them to do.
Just look at Wayne Parker (Banished to Provo). Jim Bristow (Banished into retirement). Dean Martinez (banished for doing his job). The former City recorder (banished). All because they were trying to do their job, but not the way Jesus on nine wanted it done.
The council can’t have anything on the Ogden City channel because it is too overwhelmed with the Hubris that Matt the liar wants on it, yet we continue to pay to subsidize it.
The Council need more than Dorrene Jeskes' set of nuts. We need a Council that has the balls to say no to Matt the magnificent, a new Mayor wouldn’t hurt either.
Maybe we should throw all the bums out!
I wonder if the Producer would care to tell us if he has seen any feasibility studies --- financial, marketing or engineering --- that indicate that the storied "Peterson Proposal" at its grandest [which seems to be the high concept the Producer finds so exciting] is in fact doable? That a market exists for a mini-ski venue with mostly expert terrain at the end of a two gondola ride from downtown? That financing is available in capital markets if the city and WSU do not sell him the park and public land he wants at a price low enough to make his vacation villa develop work well enough to fund the rest of the plan? [The WSU land is now off the table, and the sale of the city parklands is looking increasingly improbable --- witness the way the Mayor is running away from his former enthusiastic embrace of the idea as the election approaches]. Has the Producer seen anything ndicating that the projected customer base [grounded on reputable market studies, not Geiger wet-dreams about Yellowstone-bound tourists pouring off the interstate by the hundreds of thousands to ride a city gondola then a mountain gondola to the Basin... then back] will be sufficient to meet expenses of the flatland city gondola? That construction costs of the double gondola system and basin development have a snowball's chance in hell of being recovered by the reasonably expected traffic? And so on?
Or is his enthusiasm based solely upon the glittering [unsubstantiated by evidence] high concept alone?
This is a straight question, R. I've been trying to understand the [it seems to me] over the top enthusiasm you [and others] seem to have for what so far is a vision without any substantiating evidence that it's feasible, or has a prayer of succeeding purely in economic terms. [Let's focus on that one alone for the moment.]
High concept visions are all well and good, and fun to talk about when the boys are getting comped on lunch on 25th Street on rainy afternoons... but they're a long way from the nuts and bolts hard evidence necessary to get the finance mullahs to open their purse strings and invest their own and their clients' money. And so far as I can see, Mr. Peterson has not seemed to be able to interest the capital markets in backing his scheme. [Hence the park land and Weber State land sale and housing development scheme as an alternative funding method.]
So, what exactly makes you think all this is even capable of working? What have you seen that the rest of us haven't?
I was at the junk yard downtown and I could beleive my eyes. There were gangs everywhere. So I left.
We've been discussing other matters, but I'd hate for today's interesting editorial in the SE, headlined Give Transit Its Due Too slide by completely without notice. Link here.
The editorial talks about the upcoming Weber County 1/4 cent sales tax that the County Commission has placed on the ballot this fall, with the money dedicated to Legacy Highway corridor purchases and other road projects. The SE recommends passage of the tax, but balks at using the money exclusively, or nearly so, for road projects alone. From the editorial:
We think the respective counties' councils of government, made up primarily of representatives from each city within each county, should give thought to preserving mass-transit corridors, and to spending some of that money that has long been destined for roads on better mass transit.
With the recent surges in gasoline prices over the past year or so, lots of us have considered riding the bus to and from work instead of pouring money into our gas-guzzlers. But for many of us, the current bus system is inefficient and doesn't serve our needs -- our 30-minute drive becomes a two-hour slog. So we continue to drive, and by doing so make necessary the repairs on or expansion of existing roads, and the addition of new roads.
We're not naive. We'll need to continue repairing, rebuilding and creating new roads.
But we can mitigate roadway crowding and polluting the environment if we also seek out ways of improving our bus system, building streetcar systems -- maybe even light rail where possible -- and using commuter rail, which will come online in less than a year from now.
We ask that voters recognize the reality of the transportation challenges facing us and approve the quarter-cent tax increase on Nov. 6.
In addition, we urge our leaders to begin investigating possible transit solutions along with roadway construction as a way to deal with future growth in the Top of Utah.
From this morning's SE:
Mr. Integrity has announced that his non-call-in call-in program will not be run on Ch. 17 until after the election "out of fairness to his opponents". What a concession! My mind reels.
What the hell is wrong with this arrogant fool? Never mind, I don't have the time to read your responses this mornig.
Does he think he owns Ch 17? (what a stupid question...I know the answer already, shame on me). That channel belongs to the public! All candidates should be utilizing the channel!
What a wonderful way to get their messages out Fair play tho, Matt
Rules for how much time, etc.
Egads, the hubris of this guy is breathtaking, is it not?
C'mon Neil...let's hear you weigh in on this..it's your channnel too, you know...use it!
Sharon and Og:
Aw, c'mon guys. Hizzonah --- who as you both know I think is ethically challenged to put it as politely as possible --- finally made the right call on something. Since he no longer takes calls on the air [and so could not possibly be caught short by getting a question he hadn't prepped for], I didn't expect him to give up his TV show voluntarily for the duration of the campaign. It was the right thing to do. Also, probably, the smart thing to do. His opponents would have been taping every appearance, looking for gaffes, mis-statements etc that could be used to good effect in the campaign.
But on this one, he made the right call, particularly because the so-called Ogden Public Channel has become the Mayor's plaything and propaganda outlet. For a while there it looked like fairness in advertising was going to require him to rename it the "All Geiger All Gondolas All The Time" Channel.
He made the right call on this one. This particular decision is not something he should be criticized for. Especially since there is so much else out there he can and should be called to account for.
good on ya, Curm!!
Good Old (?) Curmudgeon:
Again, you have become such a P word (I am constantly in danger of banishment) that you give Teeny Little Matty Gondola Godfrey credit for an action that is routine in such cases; there's no "right call," his idiot brother -- who took a couple political science courses at Harrison High --- err ... WSU --- (just kidding! sorry for the jab!) told him to. Godfrey is the devil. He must be run out, by any means necessary. And those means do not include waffling posts about fairness and verisimilitude ... with italics.
THE SKI IS BEAUTIFUL BLUE.
Also: F??? the Geigers for not showing their onion-reeking, Lift Ogden asses at the Arts Festival.
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