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Fifty-four children started the school year early this month at our three state-funded classrooms. See more below.
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A message from Richard Spies, chair of The Providence Plan
Richard Spies sent this letter out today to update the community on the many steps ProvPlan has taken in the wake of a recent embezzlement. The Providence Plan is the parent organization of Ready to Learn Providence.
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Dear Friends, As you know, The Providence Plan (ProvPlan) has been working diligently to address the fallout from the recent embezzlement that we suffered at the hands of a now terminated employee. I am reaching out today to keep you, our friends and supporters, up-to-date and informed. Here are the facts: - In July 2016, we were made aware of significant gambling losses by our then Director of Finance. As a result, with the assistance of our auditors and bank, we conducted additional reviews and identified a number of questionable expenditures from ProvPlan's account.
- In conjunction with our bank we compiled the checks behind those expenditures, and confirmed that they were unauthorized and improper.
- We then sought and obtained the assistance of Brown Rudnick LLP, including an experienced team from their New York City office to investigate the apparent criminal conduct which had been uncovered. Brown Rudnick LLP agreed to assist ProvPlan through this crisis on a pro bono basis.
- The team from New York includes Justin Weddle, who was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York investigating and prosecuting white collar crime for more than 12 years.
- The Brown Rudnick lawyers swiftly confirmed that the identified checks were forged, that they were forged by the same individual employee at ProvPlan, and that the employee was also in a position to cover his tracks through various accounting entries.
- On July 27, as soon as these facts were confirmed, ProvPlan terminated the responsible employee.
- ProvPlan's extraordinarily committed board of directors became immediately involved, creating a special committee of the board to manage the process. The board directed the special committee to do so with the following guiding principles: we should cooperate with law enforcement fully, we should be transparent with stakeholders, and we should do everything possible to maintain ProvPlan's ability to continue to fulfill its mission of helping the community through its various programs.
- To those ends, ProvPlan quickly contacted funders and other stakeholders, continued its full cooperation with law enforcement, and issued a public statement on July 29, 2016.
- The direct theft is in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars, as ProvPlan announced on July 29 and was reported in several local media outlets the next day.
- ProvPlan also moved quickly to engage forensic auditors to trace the accounting entries related to the stolen funds and to determine the effect, if any, on individual grants.
- The work by the forensic auditors has continued, as has ProvPlan's continuing response to the theft it has suffered.
- Throughout the process, ProvPlan's board has remained engaged and committed to finding a path through this crisis. At the same time, ProvPlan has responded to inquiries from every media outlet that has posed them, sharing information
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