According to the Auditor General’s Office, the investigation revealed that from January 2011 to April 2012, Michael Gaul, former Kingman High School culinary arts program teacher and student Chef’s Club sponsor, embezzled and misused $12,918 of public monies for his own benefit.
The Mohave County Attorney’s Office has filed a criminal complaint with the Mohave County Superior Court, alleging that Gaul committed theft, misuse of public monies, and fraudulent schemes against the District.
Auditors concluded that the District “did not provide adequate oversight of the program and Chef’s Club fund-raising activities to ensure that all monies received for each fund-raising event were properly recorded and deposited with the District.
The audit report reads:
Michael Gaul worked for District from August 2000 to May 2012 — Gaul began his employment with the District as a program teacher at KHS in August 2000. During his first year of employment, Gaul created the Chef’s Club and acted as its sponsor. In addition to his salary, Gaul received a $4,010 annual stipend for his work with the Chef’s Club including its catering services provided for the District since 2006.
On April 27, 2012, the District placed Gaul on paid administrative leave regarding misappropriation of school resources. Mr. Gaul resigned on May 25, 2012.
From January 2011 to April 2012, Mr. Gaul embezzled and misused $12,918 of public money by creating false KHS invoices to arrange for catering customers to issue 18 checks payable in his name instead of KHS.1 As a program teacher and Chef’s Club sponsor, Gaul was responsible for invoicing customers and collecting payments on behalf of program and Chef’s Club catered events. However, instead of turning all of these payments over to the KHS bookstore for deposit into the appropriate district accounts, Gaul unlawfully retained $12,918 of these public monies for himself. Specifically, for 16 different events that were catered by either program or Chef’s Club students, Gaul either 1) split the charges into two or more invoices: one invoice payable to the program or Chef’s Club, and the other invoices falsely requesting the remaining portion be paid to him; or 2) created a substitute invoice requesting all proceeds be paid to him instead of to the program or Chef’s Club. The invoices Gaul created requesting payment to himself misleadingly resembled program and Chef’s Club invoices, including the KHS logo, address, and contact information.
Gaul deposited or cashed these 18 checks totaling $12,918 using his personal bank accounts. Gaul unlawfully used the payments he took to help pay for his living expenses such as his home mortgage and credit card debt. In fact, some of these deposits were made when Gaul’s account balances were insufficient to cover his personal expenses. Nonetheless, this money was earned by program and Chef’s Club students, using KHS supplies and resources to prepare and serve food at special events. Accordingly, all associated payments should have been deposited into the appropriate district account, depending on whether program or Chef’s Club students catered the event, and used for the benefit of the KHS students, not Gaul.
The District did not provide adequate oversight of the program and Chef’s Club fund-raising activities to ensure that all monies received for each fund-raising event were properly recorded and deposited with the District. Specifically, the District allowed Gaul to schedule fund-raising activities, establish prices, prepare invoices, issue invoices to customers, and collect cash receipts without any separate oversight.
Additionally, contrary to the District’s standard written procedures, Gaul was able to conduct 53 fund-raising events for the Chef’s Club without first receiving permission from the school’s assistant principal, the student council, and the District’s Governing Board.1 Although several KHS administrators stated that they were aware that Gaul was conducting fund-raising events, they never ensured that Gaul was receiving the required permission to do these events. In fact, some administrators failed to act even though they knew Gaul had not requested permission for certain events. In all cases, administrators thought Gaul was conducting the events to benefit KHS students and did not know he was retaining monies for himself. By providing adequate oversight and maintaining effective internal controls, the District could have prevented or detected Gaul’s actions.