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Michael Williams Searles served as athletics director at Como Park Senior High in St.Paul, MN from late 2009 until about December of 2015. The investigation into the missing funds started a few months later after he was fired.
There is still some dispute over the exact amount Searles stole from the school district. Searles admitted he stole around $35,000, but prosecutors alleged it was more like $100,000.
Charging documents state Searles paid for a laundry list of personal expenses with school’s credit card, including groceries, golf shoes, etc.
He was also accused of failing to deposit roughly $70,000 in ticket sales from the high school’s sporting events into the district’s account.
He is expected to be ordered to serve 500 hours of community service and pay any restitution or fine ordered by the court.
The district has adopted new practices to protect against similar fraud schemes taking place in the future. The district’s finance department now has centralized control over all school activity funds, including co-curricular, extracurricular and athletics accounts.
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