Reference no: EM133481267

Assignment: Financial Management Case Study

In 2012, the former CEO and founder of the New Media Technology Charter School in Philadelphia was sentenced to prison for stealing $522,000 in taxpayer money to prop up a restaurant, a health food store, and a private school. Media coverage of parent complaints of ?scal wrongdoing initially uncovered the fraud.

In 2014, Nicholas Tombetta, founder of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, was indicted for diverting $8 million of school funds for houses, a Florida condominium, and an airplane. In 2005, a former business associate of Tombetta surfaced allegations of fraud, which led to the investigation.

In 2014, Dorothy June Brown, founder of Laboratory, Ad Prima, Planet Abacus, and Agora Cyber charter schools, was retried for allegedly defrauding the schools of $6.5 million and conspiring to conceal the fraud from 2007 to 2011. Two administrators pled guilty and testi?ed against Brown in her ?rst trial. In 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Education conducted an audit of Agora after receiving complaints from parents of Agora students.

The cases described above have transcending issues and, as such, the following questions are applicable to each one. (Be sure to address all three examples.)

Question A. What financial controls need to be put in place by a governing board to avoid the fraudulent behavior demonstrated in the cases? Provide in-text citation and references.

Question B. What strategies should a Board of Directors adopt to remain abreast of the organization's finances? Provide in-text citations and references.

Question C. What changes in the governance structure need to be considered? Provide in-text citations and references.

Question D. In what ways can the governing board, along with the paid staff, make an environment where ethics permeates all aspects of the organization? Provide in-text citations and references.