This is not the person you want running your school.
A Florida principal resigned during an impassioned school board meeting on Tuesday, after it was revealed she tried to send $100,000 from the school’s account to a scammer posing as Elon Musk.
Jan McGee – the principal of Burns Science and Technology charter school in Oak Hill – claimed she spent months talking to a man online who was pretending to be the richest man on Earth, NBC affiliate WESH reports.
McGee was reportedly trying to net a multi-million dollar donation in the school, in exchange for a $100,000 check. Thankfully, the school’s business manager cancelled the check before it could be cashed.
The principal was repeatedly told she was speaking to a scammer, according to other administrators at the meeting. School staff members also pointed out other issues they have with McGee and accused her of fostering a toxic work environment.
McGee resigned after multiple staff members said they refused to work for her any longer, according to WESH.
If I really wanted to be a con artist, I would definitely move to Florida.
Wow, the cost of those blue check marks are getting ridiculous.
I’m sure she’d have sent her own money, but she’d already sent all of it to help a Nigerian prince.
Tellingly, the school didn’t report the embezzlement. Even with a stop payment order, it’s still a felony.
So, how many times has money successfully been embezzled from that school and that simply concealed?
wzrd1, probably wasn’t embezzlement. Intent may not be magic, but it does matter.
Well, not if it was done openly with the intent to benefit the school, stupid as that may have been. In the end, wiser heads prevailed.
In short, as it turns out, the principal was indeed gullible, but clearly neither the staff nor the institution was, in this case.
Related:
Charter schools are evil, anyway, why are we surprised by this?
Misappropriation remains a felony. If she was aware that no such funding was authorized to be expended in such an effort, mens rea is present and it is a crime. The only real out is if she thought that $100k was an authorized expense for that purpose, which the story stated it wasn’t and indeed, a stop payment was issued on the check.
She’s fortunate that the school didn’t report the crime, but instead allowed her to resign.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around being taken in on this scam. Send me $100k and we’ll send you millions? That makes less than no sense!
If I somehow had to respond, which means someone parked a howitzer on my toes until I did, I’d respond, “OK, send the check minus the $100k”.
wzrd1,
Well, there you go.
What’s the likelihood that, given she was so stupid as to be taken in by that scam, that she would have a firm grasp on whether or not she had the authorisation to do it?
(Attribution, malice, stupidity)
Hey, at least she didn’t show an art class a picture of Michelangelo’s David.
I have wondered though, if Michelangelo’s David had been hung like Johnny Holmes, would there still have been a complaint? I strongly suspect not.
It just wouldn’t be true to form for such creatures.
The scam this fool fell for isn’t even new — the whole “send me your money/account information and I’ll wire you millions” scam has been widely known and talked about for many years. AND she’d been explicitly warned about it herself as well. So she was greedy, dishonest AND stupid.
Hey, at least she didn’t show an art class a picture of Michelangelo’s David.
She might have been hired to quickly replace someone who had.
Tangential but a doco on Musk is screening in Oz at least SA tonight :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/tv/epg/#/
Trailer for it here 31 secs long.
Also got an episode of Stephen Fry’s Dinosaur also on SBS TV c3 justbefore that from 7.30 pm, SA time.
In case anyone isreading this in time and intrested
John Morales–
Not a lawyer, obv, but I’m pretty sure embezzlement is defined by inappropriately accessing funds, not the intent of the embezzler. Most embezzlements are for personal financial gain, but skimming money to donate to charity would still count. Also, we only have a very brief report to go on, so we don’t know if the principal was expecting some personal gain alongside the school donation.
chrislawson, I was addressing wzrd1, who brought up mens rea.
And that is my very point; it is premature speculation.
@ 4. John Morales : Thanks for that Legal eagle Florida man clip.
Incidentally from promos on the telly pretty sure that Musk doco will be much less hagiographic and more critical than it sounds here although yet to watch it and haven’t seen before.
Expect this will be available to stream on iView afterwards and maybe even youtube?
Oh &
Stephen Colbert has a great Spaaace neeews segment here hammering Musk among other things – 2 mins 25 secs mark with a good bit of discussion on the David statute ban before that too plus more.
The actual meaningful term was also one I brought up and all missed.
Misappropriation. When one has a fiduciary duty, that becomes a very big deal and most frequently mens rea becomes a background consideration, as it’s simply assumed.
I think we can take it for granted that she had a fiduciary duty, as I’m utterly unaware of anyone who can flog a $100k check on organization accounts who doesn’t hold such duties.
OT: Train derailment and fire in Minnesota, ethanol and corn syrup part of the consist, mass evacuations within a half mile of the derailment. I’m sure it’s popular as well, given it happened at 01:00 AM and a nearby highway is closed, along with that entire set of rails.
Raymond, Minnesota, Kandiyohi County, if anyone knows the state well enough.
Pity, I could use a gallon of corn syrup and a gallon of ethanol. Add a bit of bleach to the ethanol and there’s a great solvent. Well, once you wake back up…
@ ^ wzrd1 & others :
Um, y’all do know we have The Infinite Thread here :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2023/01/11/infinite-thread-xxvi/
& see link to it in big red letters on the desktop sidebar for Off Topic comments here right?
The Elon Musk Show would be a great name for a satirical program, with Stephen Fry or Rowan Atkinson as Musk. Can we please shoehorn Baldrick into the narrative as an afrikaaner secretary/fixer?
Or make a satirical show about a charter school in Florida. If it is situated in MAGA country the jokes practically write themselves. Florida Man! Moonshine! Cocaine alligators!
So everyone thought she was speaking to Musk ?
Most embezzlements are for personal financial gain, but skimming money to donate to charity would still count.
Would this even count as a “donation to charity?” She was taking money from her employer’s account with the expectation that [the guy pretending to be] Elon Musk would give even more money back to her employer; not to some other charity.
And if she’d actually got the millions she’d been promised, would she have actually given any of it back to the school? Given her observed behavior, I’m not inclined to assume she would have.
Given it’s Florida, obviously the only charity that’s allowed under all conditions (or any, for that matter) is to the grafted Florida Man, at Mar-a-Lago.
Deepak Shetty: boom tish!