GRAND HAVEN, Michigan — 13 On Your Side obtained more information about the extent of the alleged embezzlement of the former Grand Haven Area Public Schools assistant superintendent, Brian Wheeler.
A forensic audit showed that Wheeler did not collude with any other district employees.
Wheeler, 56, worked at Grand Haven Area Public Schools for over two decades. He died while in custody at Ottawa County Jail in January 2022.
The audit showed no one from the Board of Education or staff was aware of the embezzlement, which totaled nearly a million dollars from 2014 to 2021.
13 On Your Side spoke with Grand Haven Area Public Schools' board president, Carl Treutler Tuesday, who says he was relieved with the findings.
"Well, the biggest takeaway is that you have to be vigilant at all times," he said. "And fortunately, the forensic audit let us know that other members of our staff, any other employees that we had, were not involved in the scheme, but that it just involved one person."
Authorities discovered irregularities in financial transactions managed by Wheeler for an extended period of time, which were reported by senior staff at the district. An investigation into these concerns had begun in early November 2021.
"Our Director of Business Services discovered that that particular technology fund was being depleted, and could not verify some of the information that normally have, so she informed the superintendent, who sought out an investigation into this with Mr. Wheeler," Treutler explained.
"He was requested to show up at interviews several times. So locally, we determined that something had happened. And I think we were wondering if some amount had been taken, but we didn't know the extent," he added.
Wheeler had initially been put on administrative leave in November and was fired after failing to appear at multiple investigative interviews. A warrant was soon placed for his arrest.
Wheeler evaded police for one night before being discovered in Muskegon County. He pleaded no contest to the embezzling charge during a trial in January, just before his death.
We asked Treutler how the board and the district plans to prevent this from happening again.
"A number of things have been implemented already in terms of controls," he answered. "Our controls were looked at, during our regular our audit process every year. And they're the standard controls and every school district probably has in place. They're not as strict as I suppose it could be, and should be, but we've changed them. We're moving more in the realm of their suggestions and and tighter control and more verification, more vetting of vendors, those sorts of things. So we're doing more, much, much more in terms of preventing it to happen again."
"We believe that the community wants that to take place, they want us to be good stewards and fiduciary members of the their money," Treutler added, "and I know it's a lot of money that was was taken from the bond fund, that could have been spent on things in technology. So we're doing all we can to keep it from happening again."
Treutler said they plan to pursue litigation against Mr. Wheeler's estate.
"We still have to go through discovery in that matter, to try to recover the money, or as much of it as we can," he said, "but we we have a job to do there, and that may take a couple of years. It is not a fast process."
"We hope we can regain the trust. We will do everything possible to do what's necessary," said Carl Treutler. "The kids in the district are everything to us, we are certainly not happy with what happened, but we're doing all we can."
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