In an emailed statement, board Chairman Keith Shumate confirmed the zoo has engaged with a forensic auditor. On Tuesday, the firm suggested the zoo undertake a forensic audit to determine any money that Stalf, Bell and their families should reimburse the zoo.
Stalf and Bell resigned March 29 after a Dispatch investigation found that they used zoo assets personally and for the benefit of their families.
#COLUMBUS ZOO INVESTIGATION UPDATE#
Ohio Revised Code 109.28 excludes investigations of charitable trusts from public records.The findings are among the new revelations detailed in the zoo's first public update about the investigation by Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP, which it shared Tuesday evening in a written preliminary report. Investigations conducted by the Charitable Law Section are confidential. The section ensures that charities responsibly use assets entrusted to them and takes enforcement action when charities exploit Ohioans’ generosity. This mission is carried out by the office’s Charitable Law Section, which ensures trust in the nonprofit sector through transparency and accountability. The Ohio Attorney General is charged with protecting and regulating the charitable sector, including investigating abuses of alleged charitable trust. Both allegedly received improper benefits, according to reporting by The Columbus Dispatch. On Monday, the zoo’s president/CEO and chief financial officer resigned after an internal investigation related to the personal use of zoo assets. The Columbus Zoo is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that also receives levy funds from Franklin County taxpayers. “I’m troubled by both the allegations and the lack of transparency here, and this office will get to the bottom of it.” “Charity may begin at home for an individual, but it’s trouble when an executive for a charitable organization uses company resources for friends and family,” Mr. Yost Thursday announced that an investigation has been opened following recent allegations involving two executives at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.
In other news from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Investigation Launched at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium “In short, Ohio imposes death sentences on perpetrators of brutal and revolting murders, then spends years debating, reviewing, appealing and failing to act on those decisions,” the Executive Summary says. There were 11 death penalty cases for which state and federal reviews have been completed but the prosecution has yet to file a motion with the Ohio Supreme Court to set a date for the sentence to be carried out – a pointless act in the current stalemate over the method of execution. There were seven cases pending in state courts that have seen no activity in the past two years. An additional nine federal cases have seen no activity for two years. For example, at the end of 2020, there were 23 death penalty cases that had been pending for more than 10 years in federal district court.
Eight have been removed because they are intellectually disabled and, therefore, constitutionally ineligible for the death penalty.ĭelays in the judicial system have compounded the issue said the report. Fifty-six of the death sentences – one of every six – have been carried out, the Executive Summary says, noting that nearly the same number of death row inmates have avoided execution, either by having their sentences commuted (21) or by dying of natural causes or suicide before the sentence could be imposed (33). Five of those people received two death sentences, resulting in a total of 341 death sentences. Since the law’s creation 40 years ago, 336 people have been sentenced to death in Ohio. Last year, one individual received a death sentence and was added to death row. COLUMBUS - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Thursday issued the 2020 Capital Crimes Report, an annual accounting and procedural history of each case that has resulted in a death sentence in Ohio since 1981, the year the state’s current death penalty law was enacted.įrom 1981 through 2020, the report says, a total of 140 death sentences remained active, with many under review in state and federal courts.