- 注册
- 2002-10-07
- 消息
- 402,597
- 荣誉分数
- 76
- 声望点数
- 228
The former finance director of a charity providing housing and support for developmentally handicapped was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for stealing more than $900,000 from the charity’s coffers.
Yolande Knight, 50, was also ordered to pay $200,000 restitution for what Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Beaudoin described as a “distorted sense of entitlement and greed.”
Knight had pleaded guilty to the theft from Total Communications Environment (TCE) over a seven-year period while she controlled the charity’s finances.
Her thefts had deprived some of society’s most defenceless people of crucial services. In court, she has apologized for the crimes and the damages they caused.
Knight joined TCE in 1996 and became its finance director three years later.
“Ms. Knight had us all fooled,” TCE executive director Karen Belyea told Knight’s sentencing hearing. “She was a trusted member of the inner circle.”
Knight provided regular financial statements to TCE’s board of directors and other senior managers knowing that much of the information was fraudulent, said Belyea.
TCE had to make cuts to the services it provides its residents, not knowing that Knight was siphoning money from the taxpayer-funded charity to support her own lavish lifestyle, added Belyea.
Christine Wilson, a TCE founder and board member, said revelations about Knight’s systematic thefts damaged the charity’s ability to raise money in the community.
“TCE strived to maintain the high standard of care and experiences for our residents,” she added, “balancing this with the need to decrease spending while Ms. Knight was living a life of luxury at their expense.”
Knight was able to hide the fact that she was making fraudulent entries into the charity’s financial ledger to pay off the monthly card debts that often ran into the tens of thousands of dollars.
According to a statement of facts agreed to by both prosecution and defence, Knight sent more than $60,000 of TCE’s money to Haiti where her boyfriend, René St. Fort, was running for president.
She sent the money in small increments to avoid raising suspicion of Canadian Border Services officials.
More to come
查看原文...
Yolande Knight, 50, was also ordered to pay $200,000 restitution for what Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Beaudoin described as a “distorted sense of entitlement and greed.”
Knight had pleaded guilty to the theft from Total Communications Environment (TCE) over a seven-year period while she controlled the charity’s finances.
Her thefts had deprived some of society’s most defenceless people of crucial services. In court, she has apologized for the crimes and the damages they caused.
Knight joined TCE in 1996 and became its finance director three years later.
“Ms. Knight had us all fooled,” TCE executive director Karen Belyea told Knight’s sentencing hearing. “She was a trusted member of the inner circle.”
Knight provided regular financial statements to TCE’s board of directors and other senior managers knowing that much of the information was fraudulent, said Belyea.
TCE had to make cuts to the services it provides its residents, not knowing that Knight was siphoning money from the taxpayer-funded charity to support her own lavish lifestyle, added Belyea.
Christine Wilson, a TCE founder and board member, said revelations about Knight’s systematic thefts damaged the charity’s ability to raise money in the community.
“TCE strived to maintain the high standard of care and experiences for our residents,” she added, “balancing this with the need to decrease spending while Ms. Knight was living a life of luxury at their expense.”
Knight was able to hide the fact that she was making fraudulent entries into the charity’s financial ledger to pay off the monthly card debts that often ran into the tens of thousands of dollars.
According to a statement of facts agreed to by both prosecution and defence, Knight sent more than $60,000 of TCE’s money to Haiti where her boyfriend, René St. Fort, was running for president.
She sent the money in small increments to avoid raising suspicion of Canadian Border Services officials.
More to come
查看原文...
