September 14, 2010; Source: HeraldNet | There’s apparently no honor among thieves, especially when they are preying on the nonprofit resources of programs for the developmentally disabled. In Mukilteo, Wash., the president and CEO and the director of finance of Diversified Industrial Services availed themselves of $110,000 in cash advances that they failed to repay.

The finance director says that she thought the CEO had the authority to do this, therefore she did it too. One would think that the finance director might know that taking cash advances willy-nilly was against Diversified’s company policies and against good nonprofit practice. The Snohomish County Superior Court judge who heard the case thought it was pretty bizarre that anyone would think this was a legitimate nonprofit practice.

He ordered her to jail for a year and a day, directed her not to have contact with her previous co-workers, and told her to pay back what she had pilfered. She and her boss also failed to pay $100,000 in payroll taxes, leaving the organization in peril. The executive director is up for trial and sentencing in November. It will be interesting to see if he throws his finance director under the bus with the same alacrity that she displayed toward him.—Rick Cohen