TOWN OF WALLKILL – The new administration of Wallkill Town Supervisor Frank DenDanto III is not satisfied with former state auditor Tobias Otieno’s guilty plea for stealing over $405,000 from the town’s bank accounts while he was conducting an audit for the state comptroller’s office.
The town board majority has voted to hire a firm – Ankura – to conduct a forensic audit of the town’s financial records.
“Given this, we are perplexed that the district attorney’s office may consider this matter closed,” DenDanto said in a written statement. “We welcome the first step in accountability and view this plea as only the beginning of what we believe to be a much larger issue, with poor deep-rooted policies and oversights that require full accountability.”
He said the board believes “that accountability lies only with those entrusted with the town’s finances but also individuals who take advantage of their positions for personal gain.”
Councilman Mark Coyne is one of two minority on the town board to voter against conducting a new audit.
He believes it could cost the town at least $600,000 to conduct the audit as far back as 10 years. And if that new audit takes over a year, the bill could be well over $1 million.
“There are three board members that are convinced that there has been between $30- and $40-million stolen. I think this is what it is all about. They are going to try to prove that it was,” Coyne.
In the meantime, Hoovler said there was no evidence that any town official or employee stole any funds from the town. “Whether the town follows best practices or whether the town has lax policies and procedures involving money is not something that we addressed in this particular case.”
DenDanto said they believe Otieno though he could get away with the theft.
“We think that it is part and parcel the reason why the town has exposure and the reason that this individual felt comfortable and confident was because of those material weaknesses,” he said.
The town board has already approved the new forensic audit.
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