Atlanta police are investigating the alleged theft of more than half a million dollars from a charter school, according to a police report.
More than $600,000 was taken from the Latin Academy’s school bank and credit card accounts through ATM withdrawals and to pay for dinners, non-work-related travel, bonuses to employees and “personal entertainment at local night clubs,” according to the police report.
School founder Chris Clemons and the school’s former operations director were the only staff members with access to both accounts, school board chairman Kaseem Ladipo said.
The discovery that the money was missing came this summer soon after Clemons and the operations director left the school, Ladipo said.
Clemons did not respond to phone messages from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday.
Atlanta Public Schools authorized Latin Academy, but as a charter school it operates independently from the system and has its own governing board.
Two Fulton County-authorized charter schools Clemons helped start — Latin Grammar and Latin College Prep — are no longer associated with Clemons, Fulton spokeswoman Susan Hale said. Hale said Fulton officials “have no reason to suspect any mismanagement.”
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