A massive internal fraud hit the Concordia Student Union in early October, just as the union was in the middle of an accreditation drive.
The fraud, in the amount of approximately $196,000, was discovered Thursday, October 4, and the CSU immediately sought legal counsel and retained the services of a forensic accountant. The CSU's president, Robert Green, suspended the suspect the next day.
The CSU council, at a meeting on the November 11, authorized the executive to press criminal charges against the suspect as soon as sufficient evidence is collected.
The union then informed Concordia University of the fraud on October 12 and met with their bank on the 13. They are presently focusing on setting up safeguards to prevent such fraud from ever happening again.
"Looking forward, we are focusing on strategies for recovery, using all legal means to our disposal. The executive's new priority for the remainder of this year will be, of course, to set up stricter financial controls to prevent this from ever happening again," Green said in a press release on October 18.
The CSU has refused to comment on the matter until criminal charges are laid and would not speak to reporters except via e-mail. An e-mail from the Tribune to the union went unanswered after several days as of press time.
Concordia University has "expressed concern" about the fraud, according to Dean of Students Donald Boisvert.
"The [Board of Governors] is concerned, and certainly the students are concerned and kind of disappointed. Still, the University is not a party to this in any legal sense.
"I think it's commendable that the students, as soon as they found out that this was happening, decided to [have] a forensic audit, which is the only real way of getting to the bottom of this," Boisvert explained. "Hopefully when the audit is done, in a matter of weeks, we'll have a clear picture of how much money [was taken] and who is responsible."
Boisvert did not want to comment on the timing of the fraud's announcement. The CSU has been holding a referendum on accrediting it as the official campus-wide student union representing Concordia students. 66 per cent of Concordia students who voted were in favor of accrediting the CSU as their official voice.
"[The] university can not respond to such issues, but it's definitely a question that has come up," he said.
Polls closed on October 10th , while the fraud had been discovered six days earlier. CSU council itself was only officially informed in a confidential session held on the 11th. Despite such confusion, Boisvert anticipated getting to the bottom of the matter.
