Accountant For Harvard Hillel Arrested After Nearly $800,000 Disappears
By Alex Weisler
To add to what already has been a bad year for fraud at Jewish organizations, Harvard University’s Hillel announced that it had lost nearly $800,000, and a former accountant has been accused of diverting funds into his personal account.
William O’Brien was indicted July 6 on 17 counts in connection with the five-year, $780,000 fraud.
The incident was another reminder, after Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, of the vulnerability of funds held by not-for-profits. Bernard Steinberg, president and director of Harvard Hillel, stressed in an e-mail to the student community that the incident served as a teachable moment.
Harvard Hillel used the missing funds as a jumping-off point for a “thorough review” of its financial operations, conducted by an outside team of financial experts, the July 6 e-mail said.
“With this guidance, we have strengthened our business processes, internal control and oversight of all financial transactions in order to safeguard the assets of the organization and prevent similar situations from occurring in the future,” the organization wrote.
O’Brien, who handled Harvard Hillel’s accounting and bill payment, came to the university in 2003 as a contract worker with InSource Solutions.
According to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Steinberg discovered the money was missing when American Express called him to inform him that his corporate account would be closed after not being paid. After an internal investiagation, Steinberg alleged that O’Brien had funneled payments from the group’s corporate account into a separate account in his own name.
At that point, in October 2008, Hillel referred the matter to the Attorney General’s Office, which began its own investigation.
Harvard Hillel spokeswoman Melissa Monahan said that the organization hopes to regain at least some of the funds, potentially through civil suits. Despite the fiscal losses, Monahan said Hillel anticipates it will be able to continue operations uninterrupted.
“The organization has not been forced to curtail programs and services as a result of the fraud,” she said.
A press secretary for the Attorney General’s Office said that the arrangements for O’Brien’s trial have not yet been set.
Contact Alex Weisler at weisler@forward.com
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William O'Brien, accountant and Melissa Monahan, spokesperson, for McHillel.
Hillel should try hiring Jews first. They are a Jewish organization.
Hillel stopped being a Jewish Organization many years ago especially when the organization became pro Palestinian in act and in Deed. The God of the Hebrews is now punishing Hillel for their transgressions. McCheese is correct. What is a supposed Jewish Youth group doing when they hired a Gentile to work for them. What did Hillel expect?
Good for them for hiring a non Jew?
Actually Hillel should hire anyone it pleases for work that does not pertain to Jewish content. The idea is to hire according to ability for these technical positions. According to "McCheese" it would have made better sense to hire "ethical" Jews such as Bernie Madoff or Enron's Andrew Fastow. Don't be a bigot.
Second, Hillel for the most part remains a knee jerk supporter of Israeli causes and by no way could fathom supporting Palestinian rights.
No Zvuv. It gets it's money from Jewish sources because it claims to help Jewish college students. They should hire Jews & Jews only or close down. I'd rather have some Jew steal from them; than give employment to a Goy who would also steal from them.
McCheese, I am not sure why you need to call a non-Jew "Goy. And your employment policy sounds more like restrictions coming out of Germany in the 30's. Not healthy whatsoever.
You know, I have nothing at all against Jews who feel that an organization, especially a Jewish organization, should hire only Jews. My problem stems from the fact that the same Jews who hold these ethnocentric opinions then turn around and force political correctness, and multiculturalism on whites, the tenants of which they would never accept forced upon themselves. That's called hypocrisy, and yes, we know what you're up to. We know the score.
That's right, they shoud have hired Madoff's accountant.
There is a lot of stereotyping in some of these comments. We should judge individuals by their character, not their name, presumed ethnicity or religion.
The term "goy" is derogatory. Yet you throw it around and will cry out if one were to use such bigotry against you, such as "kike".
craig: There is a lot of stereotyping in some of these comments. We should judge individuals by their character, not their name, presumed ethnicity or religion.) In a multicultural, multiracial society, the only group who is required to live by this standard are whites. In fact, they are given daily doses of a drug called "white guilt," while every other ethnic group can blame whitey and given special advantages to advance and ultimately displace and disposses whitey. This, in fact, is a goal of political zionism. Now, just perhaps, Mr. O'Brien saw the audacity of this group he worked for, of their greed, of their arrogance of power as the self-ordained chosen ones on earth, and thought, "why can't I?"
Fenria: Most Jews are relatively liberal and support multi-culturalism. Most Jewish students have little to do with Hillel while in college. Statistics reveal that more than 50% of all Jews marry outside their ethnic group. Generally speaking, the Jews who espouse separatist perspectives are opposed to the multi-cultural agenda and intermarriage. They are a minority who seem to shout the loudest
take it out of the billions goyim waste annually on Israel and the Kosher tax on our food...
First off, Chuck, Goy is not a derogatory word. It merely means a non Jew or stranger. I doubt very much if the Newman Club (Catholic) hires a Jew for their accountant or money manager. It is outrageous that anyone would steal from a student organization or for that manor it is dreadful that we have dishonest people but hopefully they will be able to recover most of the funds and the thief will be punished accordingly.
So there are no Irish Jews? What about Whitey Bolger?
jeanne,
are you saying that Mr. O'Brien's self destructive behavior was motivated by his poltical beliefs and his feeling of victimization because he is white?
Q: craig: are you saying that Mr. O'Brien's self destructive behavior was motivated by his poltical beliefs and his feeling of victimization because he is white? A: Not necessarily, that issue is in the context of whites being the only ones expected to bend over backwards for every other group in a multicultural society.
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