Word: hillels
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William O'Brien, a Hillel accountant contracted from New England financial management firm Insource Services, is accused of having "stolen significant sums of money through fraud" after Hillel discovered financial reporting irregularities in early 2008, according to a letter sent on Monday to the organization's student community from Hillel President and Director Bernard Steinberg and Chair of the Board of Directors Robert Beal. They wrote that Hillel immediately terminated the Insource contract after discovering the irregularities and has worked with the state Attorney General's office for over a year to investigate the parties responsible...
Melissa Monahan, a spokeswoman contracted by Hillel to handle press inquiries about the fraud, confirmed that the organization cited in the Attorney General's release referred to Harvard Hillel. She said that there was "no delay in [Hillel's] taking the appropriate course of action" upon discovery of the irregularities, and that Hillel immediately hired legal counsel to explore possible responses. Lawyers had advised Hillel not to make the discoveries known to the public until now in order to avoid compromising the Attorney General's investigation, she said...
...Hillel had $8.2 million in net assets as of June 30, 2007, according to its most recent publicly available tax filings. That year, Hillel took in nearly $3 million in total revenue while fielding nearly $2 million in expenses...
Monahan said that Hillel has "not been forced to curtail programs or services as a result of this fraud," and that there are no plans to do so at this point in time "due to the fraud or due to the economic crisis...
Pierre said that the Attorney General's Office was notified of the fraud by Hillel in Oct. 2008 and began its investigation that month. According to the press release, investigators uncovered a second fraud scheme in which O'Brien allegedly wrote and deposited checks from the organization into another account he had created, money that he then used for personal expenses such as tickets for trips and sporting events...