Audit : $208,000 misappropriated by former member of McNeese State alumni group
Published 11:04 am Thursday, January 4, 2024
- McNeese State University is one of the state's many higher education institutions ready to help citizens get the quality education necessary to create good jobs in the state, and public officials are doing their part.
An audit of the McNeese State University’s Alumni Association found that a former employee had embezzled more than $208,000 from the nonprofit organization.
The alumni association, which supports outreach to alumni of the Lake Charles-based university and is supported by individual donors and university funds, fired the employee — former associate director Stephanie Y. Clark — according to the report.
The report says $208,265 was allegedly misappropriated by the employee with $158,106 occurring in 2022 and $50,159 in 2021. The total extent of the theft remains unknown, according to the report.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office says in the report that Clark has paid back $125,000 of the missing funds.
In the report, the accountants said they “were unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to determine the extent of alleged unauthorized and alleged misuse of financial assets and the appropriate classification within the statements of financial position, statements of activities and cash flows.”
The nonprofit organization’s latest Form 990 it filed with the Internal Revenue Service says the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office investigated the theft and that a trial would be conducted in the following fiscal year.
The contracted audits for fiscal years 2023, 2022 and 2021 were conducted by certified public accountants from the firm of Steven M. Derouen & Associates, LLC.
The audit says the organization received $312,400 in revenue in 2023, divided between individual donors ($178,143) and contributions for salaries, facilities and expenses from the university ($134,257). Some of these donations are earmarked by donors for specific purposes and can’t be spent for other purposes. The organization had $102,850 of expenditures such as events, support of alumni chapters and awards during that same time period.
In 2022, the association had $394,143 in revenue ($142,416 provided by the school) and $184,220 in expenses. The association had $426,098 in revenue ($213,982 coming from the university) and $97,373 in expenditures in 2021.
