Nonprofit Fires Employee Accused Of Embezzling

CENTRAL OHIO—A center designed to help children with problems continued to deal with an issue of its own.

NBC 4’s Paul Stelzer GOT ANSWERS from the organization’s CEO Monday.

A former employee was accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from the Buckeye Ranch, the Central Ohio nonprofit that provides treatment for children with behavioral and mental-health issues.

“It’s a very unfortunate situation,“ Buckeye Ranch’s Vice President of Development Nick Rees said.

A female employee was accused of embezzling from the Buckeye Ranch, which has administrative offices in Columbus and its ranch facility in Grove City.

“Our accounting rules and regulations are set up to catch improprieties. And over the last two weeks, we’ve been doing an internal investigation. And it has come to light that one of our employees has been stealing from the Buckeye Ranch,“ Rees said.

According to a Columbus police report, the suspect fraudulently generated checks in 2007 and 2008. 

Police said she then used the checks to pay for her own personal expenses.

In all, investigators said they believe the amount embezzled from the Buckeye Ranch was somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000.

Rees would not name the employee.

“This is an employee we trusted—who’s been with us for a number of years,“ Rees said.

Rees said the ranch fired the employee last Friday. He also said the nonprofit will press charges.

The stolen funds will not affect the nonprofit’s services, he said.

“The fortunate thing for the Buckeye Ranch is our insurance covers the loss. So this will not affect our ability to help the families, the children, their kids. It’s just an unfortunate situation because someone jeopardized our trust,“ Rees said.

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