A state Grand Jury has indicted a former Arizona Department of Education employee, Tyler Grandil, who served as the Executive Secretary of the Arizona Association of Future Farmers, for computer tampering and fraudulent schemes.
Grandil was indicted after the Arizona Auditor General’s Office presented evidence showing that he had opened a secret bank account and took over $1.7 million from the Arizona Association of Future Farmers of America.
Grandil is accused of altering invoices and funneling FFA’s funds into a secret bank account.
Former ADE “officials allowed Grandil to be the direct recipient of all AZFFA revenues, make deposits in the Department’s AZFFA checking account, record those deposits in the Department’s AZFFA accounting software, and be the administrator of that software, thereby allowing him unfettered access and control of AZFFA monies,” reported the Auditor General’s Office.
“After my administration came into authority in 2015, we became aware that employees of the AZ Department of Education were running the finances and essentially handling the business of private, non-profit student organizations such as AZ Future Farmers of America and AZ Future Teachers of America among others. At best this was a gift of public funds to have government employees conducting the business affairs of private organizations. We severed the ties and handed the finances and records over to the non-profit organizations,” former Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas told the Arizona Daily Independent.
Auditor General’s Office findings:
The investigation revealed that from March 2011 through December 2015, after opening a secret checking account with himself as the only signer, Mr. Grandil deposited therein $1,700,939 of Arizona Association FFA (AZFFA) monies that should have been deposited in a department checking account, altering department accounting records to conceal his actions.
Without the Department’s or AZFFA’s knowledge, Mr. Grandil spent this money for AZFFA and personal purposes. Because monies were commingled and certain records were not available, we were unable to determine how much of this money was used for AZFFA purposes. However, from this secret account, Mr. Grandil issued 28 checks totaling $40,950 to himself, his family members, or their companies.
Grandil admitted he used five personal credit cards for both AZFFA and personal purposes, commingled, AZFFA, and personal monies for payments, and failed to keep a separate account that tracked AZFFA and personal purchases. As a result, the Auditor General’s Office was unable to determine how much of the money Grandil spent from March 2011 through December 2015 toward paying the balances on his personal credit cards.
From May 2011 through August 2015 Grandil through his secret account issued 18 checks totaling $29,500 to his family members, their companies, or their companies’ credit card. In response to a court procedure, Grandil’s family members claimed Grandil hired them to provide goods and services to AZFFA, but they did not provide documentation to support the purpose of those goods and services.
Further from February 2012 through October 2015, Grandil issued himself 10 checks totaling $11,450 from his secret account. In response to a court procedure, Grandil claim the payments were for reimbursement of a $10,000 loan he provided to AZFFA in approximately 2010 to cover amounts he charged to his personal credit cards for national FFA convention travel costs. Although Grandil did not provide documentation to support this loan, the Auditor General’s Office found that in January 2011, Grandil and his wife used their personal monies to make a $10,000 payment on one of their personal credit cards. Nonetheless, it’s still unclear if this payment was for a loan to AZFFA because as discussed earlier their credit card balances included both AZFFA and personal charges.
From March 2011 through December 2015 Grandil used $27,355 to pay for AZFFA disbursement, such as conference hotel expenses, $27,178 to make payments on credit card accounts held by unknown persons for unknown purposes, $12,626 for bank charges, and $1081 for likely personal purposes, such as payments to a home warranty company and a telecommunications company.