In Wednesday’s (3/5) San Jose Mercury News (California), Tracey Kaplan reports, “The Peninsula Symphony was sitting pretty this past fall—or so board members thought. The executive director of the Los Altos nonprofit had just reported the group was in excellent financial shape, ready to embark on its 65th concert season. But then a venue-rental check bounced, and the horrified board learned all its accounts had been drained—including a $500,000 endowment. ‘It was a total surprise,’ said board chairman and cello player Alan Bien, who performs with the orchestra of volunteer musicians. The discovery prompted the sudden resignation of the group’s executive director, Stephen Jay Carlton, in September.… Carlton was arrested last week on charges of embezzlement, grand theft, forgery, identity theft and tax evasion in connection with the symphony’s loss. … [Carlton] faces a maximum of 18 years in prison if he is convicted.… The investigation allegedly showed that Carlton had begun siphoning off money shortly after he took over in the summer of 2010 from the previous executive director, who retired after eight years.… At the time, the board didn’t have controls in place to monitor the accounts. ‘We very much trusted him,’ Bien said. The symphony has since hired an accounting company.”
Posted March 6, 2014
