In a December 15, 2015 MLive Report, Ben Freed revisits the embezzlement that roused the sleeping citizenry of Augusta Township.  It was a neat crime, if your idea of neat is taking advantage of careless bookkeeping and careless officials.  Township records are in such disarray that no one knows how much money was embezzled.  State Police investigators threw up their hands and made a case against one man, the 21 year old grandson of the Augusta Township Treasurer.  He was charged with embezzling $10,000.   Of the money, whether millions or hundreds of thousands, all but$1,200,000?  $2,000,000?  $800,000?  $70,000? is gone.

 

has bounced from $2,000,000 to millions to hundreds of thousands, from $1.2A Township Board member who raised the alarm, Detroit Police Investigator Ira Todd, began investigating after his audit committee found $2,000,000 in Township funds unaccounted for.    Accountants told Todd that as much as $1.2 million remains missing.  A confidential State Police investigator's report uncovered by Fox-2, Detroit, hints at multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars missing.  $70,000 of the $80,000 that Police can prove was stolen has vanished.  The 21 year old Deputy Treasurer appointed to the job at 19 by his Grandmother, the elected Treasurer, has been left holding the bag.  and has now been charged with embezzling that last $10,000..

 

A joint investigation by the Michigan Attorney General's office and the Michigan State Police found there was approximately $80,000 that went missing from the Township's books. Deputy treasurer Brendan Humeniak, 21, faces two charges of embezzlement as a public official in relation to about $10,000, but where the remaining $70,000 went remains a mystery.

 

"Due to a complete and total lack of accountability, performance of duties, and inter office cooperation, along with incompetence, I am afraid to say these funds cannot be accounted for in my investigation," Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Melissa Gee-Cram wrote in an email to the board July 28.  The email was uncovered by Fox-2 -News, Detroit.

 

"As you are all aware, the ledgers were not balanced, and the method in which the theft was occurring, created a perfect storm that made it extremely difficult for the accountants who have combed through the records to pin point the exact missing funds."

The problem is much larger than $80,000. 

Fox-2's Taryn Asher reported: "Out of the hundreds of thousands of dollars missing, investigators only found $80,000 was ever deposited and could only trace $10,000 back to the former Deputy Treasurer Brendan Humenik who is expected to be charged with embezzlement by a public official."