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Criminal Charges Filed Against The Arts Council Of Northwest Florida
April 9, 2010
The State Attorney’s Office has filed two criminal charges against the Arts Council of Northwest Florida for making false official statements.
Complaints investigated by the State Attorney’s Office alleged that the Arts Council filed false reports with Escambia County and the City of Pensacola in order to receive funding and that the designated funds received were used improperly.
That SAO found wrongdoing on the part of the arts organization over “an extended period of time”, according to a report filed Thursday by Chief Assistant State Attorney Gregory Marcille.
In fiscal year 2009, the Arts Council received $100,000 in funding from Escambia County and $60,000 from the City of Pensacola. $120,000 of the funds were to be distributed to a dozen different arts organizations. The agreement with the county stated that the council was to be reimbursed after writing checks to the arts organizations. The Arts Council will provide copies of the checks to Escambia County that were supposedly sent to the arts groups. In reality, the Arts Council was withholding the checks and providing a false statement to the county, according to Marcille’s report.
The City of Pensacola made a lump sum payment each year, and the SAO found that it became regular practice for th group to use the current funding to pay expenses from the prior year.
Marcille said in his report that there was no evidence that anyone misappropriated funds for their own use, and no individuals were charged in connection with the incident.
The Arts Council of Northwest Florida will be arraigned on April 29 before Judge David Ackerman.
To read the full report from the State Attorney’s Office, click here.
Comments
One Response to “Criminal Charges Filed Against The Arts Council Of Northwest Florida”
No wonder so many youth are in rebellion against responsibilty and integrity. What kind of examples are they seeing, from the lowest to the highest in our society? Makes me sick.
If any of our youth are reading this, I hope they will search for and find the few that still hold all the values of repsonsibility and integrity high in their words and in their actions, even when no one they can see is looking.