The Oklahoma State University was shocked recently to learn that a university employee was able to use a university credit card to buy tens of thousands of dollars of lingerie, sex toys and other personal items. Cynthia Low, 44, allegedly used the taxpayer-funded card to buy an impressive amount of such items before being caught.
While Low was making only $28,000 a year, she spent at least $806,000 on her university credit card — though not all on extracurricular supplies.
Here is a partial list of those items:
• Dozens of sex toys, pieces of lingerie and other clothing for $2,300;
• More than 50 pieces of lingerie for $1,500;
• More than 30 panties and slips for $756;
• Estee Lauder lip plumper and makeup for $530;
• Fragrances and lotions from Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works for $311;
• Nintendo Wii games and DVDs for $284;
• Sapphire and cubic zirconia jewelry for $148.
Remarkably, there has been no mention of a criminal charge in the case.
She reportedly made many of the purchases after she and her husband emerged from bankruptcy. At the time, Low’s wages were being garnished by a loan company.
The university says that it has implemented a new training program for employees on the correct use of credit cards. That must be an interesting class.
Lesson One: shopping at Victoria’s Secret does not keep the purchases a secret from the University.
Lesson Two: if you are buying something you would not want to show your mother, it is probably not on the approved list of university items.
Lesson Three: if it is ordered from a post office box in Vegas and comes without any markings on the exterior, it is probably a personal expenses.
Lesson Four: while our motto is “branding success,” branding irons are not an approved expenditure.
Lesson Five: anything with more x’s than the Periodic Table is probably something to leave on the shelf.
Source: NewsOK.
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The woman in question was the head of accounting for the department. She was responsible for making sure the faculty and staff bought everything on the level. Unfortunately, the university accounting was not watching her closely enough (even though she was audited once a year). She was altering invoices from amazon and other sites to reflect legitimate purchases. On the purchase credit card monthly statements the only thing that showed up was the company for a specific amount, not the item bought. And hence, she was able to get away with it for awhile, not indefinitely.
kathleen–
And this went on for how long before someone noticed? It takes a while to spend that much money on the kinds of purchases described.
It seems to me that her immediate supervisor is due a large portion of the blame for not supervising her purchases. Any person who has access to an organization’s funds should also have their purchases reviewed by someone else, or the organization is not doing ITS job.
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I couldn’t agree with you more!
And this went on for how long before someone noticed? It takes a while to spend that much money on the kinds of purchases described.
It seems to me that her immediate supervisor is due a large portion of the blame for not supervising her purchases. Any person who has access to an organization’s funds should also have their purchases reviewed by someone else, or the organization is not doing ITS job.
Especially for low-paid employees to have no oversight, and no vendor exclusions on such a credit card, and apparently not even a limit to spending, effectively places great temptation in front of someone who may have little willpower to resist. Any accounting scheme in any organization should understand this, and should have procedures in place to prevent abuses, or the organization is complicit in allowing the misbehavior.
I work for a public entity, and have a credit card. The card itself is set up to automatically decline many vendor classes, there are single-purchase limits and monthly purchase limits, and I am expected to provide receipts for all purchases (that are then reviewed by my supervisor and the accounting dept), I have to be prepared to justify any of my purchases. All of these are organizational responsibilities, that cannot be placed solely on the shoulders of this miscreant employee.
In short, this case says a lot more about the organization than it does about the employee, even given her direct responsibility for her actions.
‘tens of thousands of dollars of lingerie, sex toys and other personal items….’
wow…charged off to her boss?
bless her lil heart….
mespo727272
“Remarkably, there has been no mention of a criminal charge in the case.”
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It does state in the article that “prosecutors” are involved in the investigation however.
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Yes, but … if far more influential Oklahoma State University employees have also been misusing their cards … I doubt prosecutors will proceed. Of course I could be in a morning, cynical mood …..
At $2,300, she may have bought the entire stock of sex toys in the State of Oklahoma.
Car wax fine, bikini wax not. Big tv yes, big bra no. Oklahoma, okay.
So if I go to work for the CIA do I have to give an accounting of where my purchases are made? How about if I sell gas and oil to the government as a former government employee do I have to charge the going rate? If I have 5 hammers and I can purchase them at a local hardware store for 11.99 and I know that their cost is 2.93 is it unethical to sell the same to the government for 890.00 regardless of where I purchase them? If I work in the sugar field and sell sugar to the soft drink manufacture is it unethical for me to sell that same sugar to them even though I receive a subsidy for not growing it? How about if the soft drink manufacture receives a subsidy from the government to use corn syrup and the net cost of manufacture of the 2 liter bottle is 3/4 of 1 cent on the dollar may I sell that same 2 liter for 1.89?
So whats the beef, her, if you want to talk about beef, then we can say that has subsidies as well.
Hell yes, what she did was criminal. But was she pretty? In Oklahoma that makes a world of difference. Hell in a lot of places that makes a lot of difference.
“Remarkably, there has been no mention of a criminal charge in the case.”
****************
It does state in the article that “prosecutors” are involved in the investigation however.