Today's Joplin Globe reveals former Joplin Boys and Girls Club director Rob Clay is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court to unspecified charges. He had been charged with stealing in a case scheduled to go to trial later this year in Jasper County Circuit Court.
Clay, 52, allegedly embezzled approximately $200,000 from the club.
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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the former director of the Boys and Girls Club in Joplin, Mo., pleaded guilty in federal court today to embezzling more than $443,000 from the organization.
Robert A. Clay, 52, of Joplin, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr this afternoon to an information that charges him with wire fraud and money laundering.
Clay was the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Joplin from the late 1980s until Nov. 30, 2003, with the authority to oversee the payment of operating expenses and with signature authority on the organization’s general operating bank account. From August 1998 to March 2004, Schlozman said, Clay embezzled $443,143 that was donated to the Boys and Girls Club and used it for his own benefit.
According to the information, Clay opened a money market account at the First State Bank of Joplin on Nov. 14, 1997, in order to receive a $20,000 federal grant. This federal grant was to be used to establish or sponsor a Boys and Girls Club in Miami, Okla. After the grant money had been disbursed, the account should have been closed. Unbeknownst to the Joplin Boys and Girls Club’s board of directors, however, Clay kept the account open.
Clay deposited $597,749 in contributions, grants, and donations from various sources into the First State Bank account between August 1998 and March 2004. Those funds should have been deposited into the Boys and Girls Club’s general operating account at US Bank in Joplin. With the exception of the initial $20,000 federal grant, Schlozman said, all of those deposits and withdrawals were unknown to the board of directors. Clay withdrew $597,698 from the First State Bank account during that time frame, most of which was used for his own benefit.
Clay is charged with two counts related to specific activities that were part of the larger scheme to defraud the Boys and Girls Club.
Count One of the information charges Clay with wire fraud. On Aug. 21, 2003, Clay caused a $50,500 grant from the Famsea Corporation of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, which was in the form of a wire transfer, to be deposited into the First State Bank account. The $50,500 grant grant was intended for use by the Joplin Boys and Girls Club to fund a program known as Project Learn and Career Development for Teens. Between Aug. 22 and Sept. 8, 2003, Clay transferred $11,600 – representing the proceeds of the $50,500 wire transfer from Famsea Corporation that had been deposited into First State Bank &! #8211; from First State Bank account to his own personal bank account at Mercantile Bank in Joplin.
Count Two of the information charges Clay with money laundering for engaging in a monetary transaction in which criminally derived property – $11,600 derived from the wire fraud charged in Count One – was transferred from First State Bank in Joplin to Mercantile Bank.
Under federal statutes, Clay could be subject to a sentence of up to 40 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000 and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Michael Green. It was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Joplin, Mo., Police Department.
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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at
www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html
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