Unscrewed Funds Embezzled By Former Treasurer
About $2000 in donations were misappropriated by Beverly Erickson, the former Treasurer of UNSCREWED in the fall of 2007, and the organization has been struggling to recover ever since.
President Tom Stillwell explains, “when UNSCREWED was begun, it was a spontaneous, ad hoc organization, with everybody scrambling to get things rolling quickly so as to aid artists in need as soon as possible. Because of the urgency, we didn’t institute proper precautions immediately. Bev set up a checking account in her own name because we didn’t have a business name or incorporation papers until some time later and couldn’t open an account in the company name. We trusted her because she had been a longtime member of Comic Book Resources under the name ‘PaperGirl’, had served as a Moderator on the site, and was well-known and highly regarded by all involved.”
In October of 2007, UNSCREWED was informed by an artist that a Paypal transfer sent to him had been canceled. Other payments were found to have also been canceled. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the organization’s checking account had been closed around the same time that Erickson had relocated from Florida to Alabama. Attempts to contact her went unanswered for over a month.
When Erickson was finally contacted, she explained that she had made “an honest mistake” and had accidentally used the wrong checkbook to pay some bills; by the time she discovered the error, she was in dire financial condition and could not pay the money back. She promised to send a small amount out of each paycheck until the debt was paid. No payments were ever received, and she has subsequently changed her phone number; attempts to contact her by letter, email and through family members have been unsuccessful.
“Legally, there was nothing we could do; the donations were sent to her Paypal account and deposited into a checking account in her name, with our consent,” Stillwell stated. With no other recourse, Stillwell began paying back the missing funds out of his own pocket., as well as replacing the canceled transactions, again at his own expense.
The organization’s leadership decided that it would be best for the group to absorb the loss and move on rather than spend a lot more time and money trying to recover the lost funds and harm UNSCREWED’s reputation in the process. Work has proceeded on the comic anthology the organization is publishing, and some artists have been assisted with filing claims against non-paying publishers. Despite the financial blow to the organization, no request for assistance has been denied. The situation has not affected UNSCREWED’s work.
But recently, when a disgruntled former acquaintance of Ms. Erickson with knowledge of the situation had begun threatening to expose the story, it was decided to go public.
“All we can do is honestly say what happened and accept responsibility for the errors we made in the past,” Stillwell said, “we’ve addressed those errors so they can’t happen again; the bank and Paypal accounts are in the organization’s name, the new Treasurer, Brian Crowley, lives nearby, and notifications of all account transactions are sent from the bank to multiple board members on a daily basis. Beyond that, all we can do is continue to replace the stolen funds and try to keep the organization going; it’s too important to just let it collapse.”
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
That’s so awful. I remember when the group was making a big push, um, last year? To get things organised, art done, art sold, etc. And I remember PaperGirl being pretty active and helpful, and setting herself up as someone to be trusted.
I don’t get why a few grand was worth messing up so many friendships. $2000 isn’t even that much (in this economy), though the cost of the breach of trust and the potential damage to the group, well.
I think that with the folks trying to make things right, things will end up ok. But it’s still awful.
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
It is awful. I suspect that PaperGirl was so deeply embarrassed by what she’d done that she couldn’t face it at all. Hence the extreme disappearing act. Pity is, she can’t run away from herself, and she’ll carry it with her always.
It’s also really disappointing that someone who had been a supporter of Unscrewed! wanted to expose the situation just to get back at her for something totally unrelated. He seemed to feel that the decision of the Unscrewed! board not to make the situation public constituted an “ugly lie”. He didn’t seem to understand that there’s a difference between choosing not to make something public and actually lying and covering it up. Pity about that, too.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Well, it is deeply disappointing, but I am afraid it is very common in fandom. So many people in fandom are trusting, and because funds are limited, we have to rely on that trust. We don’t have the resources to properly scope people out, or hire the best help. Hence my Amy Player post from a few days ago. I know way too many people who have done this to me, and to fandom organizations trying to raise money for charity.
I know some people get upset when they come to me and want me to support this charity or that one, and I have really never heard of these people, and can’t find them listed at Charity Watch, or other organizations that list philanthropic groups and their financial statements. And I am reluctant to endorse them or send them money. And that’s because I have been involved in so many fan groups that have ended up getting their good works damaged by one yahoo or other who turns out to be a thief.
I am glad Unscrewed is still going, and I will continue to support it. I paid for several people who got ripped off by Rick Olney out of my own pocket as well.
Bev may not have been malicious, but she did a lot of damage regardless. These people never seem to MEAN what they do. And yet they do it.
The result is the same. I don’t really care what she intended now.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Oh, I am full of it. This is not limited to fandom. Bernie Madoff is more than ample proof of that.
There are scamsters galore out there. I got scammed myself in the last decade, and badly. I think I am a smart cookie.
Not smart enough.
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