You might be a bad thief if you get caught robbing the horse charity for which you’re in charge of counting monetary donations.
Greenwich Time reports that a Connecticut woman who acted as the treasurer of a local horse nonprofit drained $188,000 from its coffers during her employment. Naomi Gauruder, 44, has since been arrested and faces felony first-degree larceny.
Police say Gauruder worked at the charity from 2011 to 2018, and its founder became suspicious that something wasn’t right with its bank records, so he did a “soft audit.”
The anonymous founder of the unnamed charity discovered that $66,000 of the nonprofit’s funds were unaccounted for and did some more digging with the help of an accounting firm. He then found, according to police, that “Gauruder had presented financial numbers in a way that disguised her misuse of chapter funds.”
Gauruder had used the organization’s debit card and checks on gas, manicures and for medical purposes, according to the report. She also swindled money to put into her own horse show management company, BHC.
The investigation found that she embezzled $34,000 in 2013, two years after she began working at the charity.
Bail was set at $250,000 and she is due back in court on May 11.