UGA Greek Life Embezzelment

[ASTalumna06]

What in the actual F?! Sticky notes? Blank checks? No budget? Zero oversight? Are you kidding me?

In early July, a report of theft was filed with the UGA Police Department. As police began interviewing members of the Greek Life Office (GLO) and Evans’ family, other officers, along with the university’s Internal Auditing Division, sifted through a decade of bank statements, receipts, checks and expenses. The investigation revealed that Shamp, Assistant Greek Life Director Elizabeth Pittard and other staff never set budgets or tracked expenses, with “misplaced trust,” often relying on verbal confirmation from Evans or numbers written on sticky notes.
.....

Pittard told investigators Evans would sometimes write the available funds in the Panhellenic Council account on a sticky note and leave it on her desk. Evans would tell Pittard the PHC “broke even” when they discussed funds after sorority recruitment, according to UGAPD documents.

The July 29 IAD report said Shamp failed to provide “any form of monitoring procedures over the financial activity of GLO.” There were no budgets for the organizations managed by the GLO, and no mechanism to monitor and investigate unusual activity.

Blank checks Shamp and Pittard signed were later found to have been made out to Evans. Neither supervisor reviewed bank statements — Shamp told police she simply trusted Evans, whom she worked with for almost 20 years.

Bank statements also listed “a large number of purchases” from stores such as T.J. Maxx, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Big Lots, Target, Kroger, Sam’s Club, Walmart and various department stores totaling about $156,000 that “appear to be unauthorized” on the IFC, PHC and UGA Miracle accounts.
.....

Evans made 323 ATM transactions from the PHC account, 361 transactions from the IFC account and 64 transactions from the UGA Miracle account. Of the 748 ATM transactions, 713 were for the maximum amount of $600. Video files from Synovus ATMs indicate Evans made multiple cash withdrawals from the Tate Plaza Synovus ATM, just a short walk from the GLO in the Tate Student Center.
......

Mason Black, assistant director of the GLO and adviser to the IFC, was not an authorized check signer on any accounts, but he told investigators he shared his purchasing card with students who wanted to make IFC-related purchases, and did not review the purchases.