Earlier this month The Canadian Salvation Army revealed it had been the victim of massive internal fraud.
Now The Globe and Mail has some details. As of yet a 25 year old accountant who had worked for the Salvation Army head office in Toronto has not been charged with a crime. (see update below)
Mr. Wa was approached by a Globe reporter and photographer last week as people carried belongings from his home and placed them in a moving van. He politely declined to answer questions.
According to sworn affidavits filed in court, it appears someone, and the Salvation Army believes it is the young accountant, may have had a crisis of conscience and tipped off the charity. It wasn’t until the Salvation Army was contacted by a lawyer representing an unnamed client that it realized it had been looted of a small fortune.
It was Dec. 20, and the Salvation Army’s Christmas kettle campaign was only halfway to its goal of raising $1.65-million. But until that morning, when Salvation Army lawyer Bryan Campbell sat down with another lawyer, Christopher Reed, the organization had no idea just how short it truly was.
According to Mr. Campbell’s affidavit, Mr. Reed said he had a client who had misappropriated more than $1-million from the charity. This mystery client wanted to return some of the money as long as the charity agreed to some conditions. Mr. Reed’s client wanted an agreement that the Salvation Army would take no criminal or civil action against him; in return he would give back 40 per cent of what he had taken. The charity had to agree to keep the deal confidential, according to a copy of the proposed agreement filed with the court.
25 year old Ming Wa’s phony invoice scheme was discovered through a routine internal audit. 2.3 million dollars could not be accounted for. Because internal auditing found the theft, there will be no deal. The Salvation Army is not commenting on the Globe and Mail report because of the criminal investigation.
Salvation Army blogs
Joshua Barber says Wa had been given 23 million dollars from his father who had won a lottery. He asks who would steal from the Sally Ann? My guess - a gambler, someone who thought he could.
Update: CTV is reporting Ming Wa has been charged with with fraud over 5 thousand and falsification of books and documents.
The scary (and hopeful) part of a story like this is how easy it is to commit this kind of fraud, and how rare it is. Charities–most of whom run lean offices to reduce overhead and put the majority of their funds into services–often don’t have the checks and balances that for profits businesses do. They rely on the goodwill of their employees, who rarely let them down. If someone decides to go bad, they can steal a lot of money fairly easily
Good Luck on that thinking, it happens more that people think. I worked for a non-profit agency that stole money from the poor on a regular basis. I lost my job because of it because I was so vocal about the abusive spending of tax dollars that were meant for the poor but ended up in the executive directors pockets. Rock on whitleblowers, and hopefully this government will give us the protection we need to bring these greedy bastard to their greedy little knees.
I agree it happens a great deal. And I agree that whistleblowers are courageous and need support. I am sorry you lost your job because of the lack of ethics from others.
Did anyone here of how the Court appearance went?
I personally beleive the Salvation Army needs a serious audit by the CCRA.
On the CFTO story, the finance secratary stamped and siged the approval on all of the invoices. Wouldn’t someone question $100,000 on on invoice for architect work that was never done?
If Mr. Wa had not come forward I doubt that they ever would have caught on. And personally I don’t buy the guilty concious story.
I Have not heard anything in the media about the court case.
I hope they trow the book at Ming Wa.
we have all given money to the poor not knowing that it was going to him and his live in girl friend who has been together for 5 years i have heard nothing mentioned about her. I lived a few houses from them I can’t believe the girl fried can just walk clear i saw how they were both living like money was no object.
SAD very Sad…
Iris- If he did this through property than it does not affect donation money.It’s a well unded organization when it comes to internal activities.
If he had a “guilt trip” then came forward you’d think the Sally Ann would try to work with him.
Apparently there was the deal until they found out it was one of their own.
Thing is that they brought this guy Mitchell in after a fraud in 99-2000 was uncovered and still miss this and to top it; the PR rep who released the memo on Mr. Wa used to be the cheif accountant for the Salvation Army.
They have more secrets that they care to share.
I Can’t believe that you are thinking S. Archer that its not our donation dollars that he stole. our money is used for upkeeping and repairs of property.I know this for a fact since I am an employee of the same company we are talking about.
He should get jailed for what he has done.