San Mateo county Mosquito District - embezzlement scandal update

Property owners pay an annual San Mateo county mosquito and vector control fee.  District finance director, Joanne Seeney and her bookkeeper assistant Vika Sinipata embezzled funds. Betsey Schneider, San Carlos trustee questioned expenses in the pesticide account leading to an outside investigation.  No prior county background check was made of either employee (imagine that). 

Excerpts from  San Mateo Daily Journal/Michelle Durand, 3/3/12. "Mosquito district puts manager on 'performance improvement plan'."  

"Got you!"

"Robert Gay, the district manager of the county’s mosquito and vector control district, has reportedly been placed on a performance improvement plan following an evaluation of his connection to two former finance employees who allegedly stole more than $600,000.  The district Board of Trustees discussed District Manager Robert Gay’s performance in a closed session meeting Feb. 8. While nobody contacted at the district could share the outcome of that review, a request by the city of San Carlos for a civil grand jury investigation shined some potential light. --

---San Carlos, like several other county cities, sends a representative to the district board but has no other direct investment in the special district. San Carlos’ trustee, Betsey Schneider, actually helped uncover the alleged embezzlement by questioning expenses in the district’s pesticide account. The questions led to an outside audit that led to an investigation into former finance director Joanne Seeney, who used the name Jo Ann Dearman, and former accounting assistant Vika Sinipata. Seeney, 60, who is already serving time for a previous embezzlement, and Sinipata, 35, were charged in December with eight counts of embezzling public money.

Prosecutors say Seeney and Sinipata embezzled the funds between 2009 and 2011 by giving themselves extra pay at a higher rate and fraudulent time off, excessively contributed to their deferred compensation funds, used credit cards for personal purchases and electronically transferred money into their own accounts.  --The audit reported more than $635,000 was missing, much of it in the last fiscal year. The district contacted the County Counsel’s Office which in turn handed the matter to the District Attorney’s Office which charged them with stealing more than $450,000. The district’s numbers might be closer to the actual loss but prosecutors are only alleging the amount they can prove, according to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

After the alleged embezzlement came to light, Gay said the district implemented new policies, including background checks that might have turned up Seeney’s previous criminal history. At the time of Seeney’s employment, she had been prosecuted in two different embezzlement cases, including one in which she ran up more than a half-million dollars on her boss’ credit card. In March, she was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on the two cases and ordered to pay restitution.-- See full article."

Reference - San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District, Board of Trustees. The Pacifica Trustee for the Pacifica is John Curtis.  Related articles - San Mateo Daily Journal, 1/31/12, "Mosquito district theft bugs councilman.",  San Mateo Daily Journal, 2/17/12, "Alleged mosquito district thieves in court."

Posted by Kathy Meeh