Crisis Ministries: Statement regarding alleged embezzlement incident
June 10, 2013
Crisis Ministries was deeply distressed to discover last Thursday via a call from their bank, Wells Fargo, that the organization had been the unknowing victim of an apparent embezzlement at the hands of a long time employee, Carol Libby, who served as chief financial officer for 10 years, without incident. The organization is working closely with the City of Charleston Police Department to discover all details of what transpired. In the meantime, Ms. Libby has been suspended without pay, pending the outcome of the investigation, effective today, Monday, June 10, 2013.
Loyal to its mission, Crisis Ministries exists to provide food, shelter and hope to end homelessness and hunger one person at a time, one family at a time. The organization can only do that through the support of staff, volunteers and generous donors who are critical to the organization and its success. The last several years Crisis Ministries has worked ardently, with tremendous community support, to add to the core financial base to weather the storm of the recession and to respond to a larger need. To learn that any part of those hard earned funds from donors and other sources was compromised is beyond disappointing. There are numerous checks and balances in place that should have prevented this from occurring, both within the organization and the financial institution. That said, we are not sure how any organization fully protects itself against individuals with their own agendas and illicit/illegal intent, if that is what is proven to have occurred here.
Crisis Ministries does not expect any program or service to be compromised by this unfortunate event and remains committed to its critical mission to serve the homeless.
