The former director of an Austin charity may have stolen more money from local non-profits than previously believed.
On Tuesday, Ken Mory, the Austin city auditor briefed the Austin City Council Audit and Finance Committee in its monthly meeting that city, county, state and federal investigators are working together to determine if Louann Aponte, the former executive director of Family Connections stole money from the 15.2 million dollars in taxpayer money the city gave to charities she ran since 1990.
"Right now we suspect that during that period of time that some money was taken. We don't know the amount at this point. That's what this investigation is all about.", said Ken Mory.
In February, a state audit of Family Connections raised red flags which unveiled that Aponte may have falsified the non-profits audits. The Travis County District Attorney's office believes Aponte stole at least $327,000 from Family Connections.
The investigation into Aponte led to Family Connections closing its doors two weeks ago leaving 30 employees and 32,000 people who benefited from the agency each year out in the cold.
Over the weekend the Travis County D.A.'s office seized Aponte's Circle C home. On Tuesday the same agency seized Aponte's boat which authorities believe may have been purchased with money stolen from one of the non-profits she ran.
KVUE also did a background search to find that Aponte was convicted of Larceny in 1987 and spent time in jail.
The accusations swirling around Aponte have caused many in city government and the community to question the way other non-profits police themselves.
"I'd like to speak on behalf of the non-profits in this community and encourage the general public to not use this situation as anything that is anywhere near a common example of what might be going on out there", said Matt Kouri with Greenlights, a non-profit in the business of helping the estimated four to six thousand non-profits in central Texas run more efficiently.
Because of the Family Connections ordeal, Greenlights is now encouraging non-profit board members to do background checks on future executive directors of their charities.
"We think one of the positive aspects that has come out of this, the silver lining if you will in this pretty dark cloud is that many non-profit board of directors and donors will be asking harder questions than they might have asked before and that's a good thing", added Kouri.
Greenlights has come up with guidelines for charity donors, volunteers and board members to go through before expending time or energy in a non-profit.
For more information click here: http://www.greenlights.org/
