In Friday’s (8/12) York Dispatch (Pennsylvania), Elizabeth Evans writes, “Detectives investigating more than $58,000 missing from the York Symphony Orchestra’s bank accounts have arrested the orchestra’s former officer manager, alleging she embezzled the money. Phyllis Ann (LoPresti) Shoff, 55, of the Travel Inn, 300 Commerce Drive in New Cumberland, remains free on $10,000 bail, charged with two counts of felony theft by deception. … She served as the orchestra’s office manager for about eight years, according to Henry Nixon, executive director of the orchestra. Her last day on the job was May 6, he said. … Perhaps the most painful part about the alleged embezzlement is the feeling that the symphony has disappointed its supporters, according to Nixon. ‘We at the symphony work so very hard at being good stewards of the funds that are contributed to us,’ he said. ‘We live on that contributed income, so we take it very, very seriously.’ The missing money has not affected programming, according to Nixon. … Shoff logged 78 different checks into the orchestra’s computerized check-register program, showing they were to be paid to various vendors and guest artists of the orchestra, police said. But instead, she’d made all 78 checks—totaling $58,093—payable to herself, according to the [arrest] affidavit.”
Posted August 15, 2011
