Thanks, Arianne! Yes, this is a dismal event, but I'm pretty happy about our institutional response. We reported it to the authorities and police when this came to light a year ago, and were as open as we could be while the investigation was proceeding. It's an ugly, ugly thing, but justice is being served. Here's a pretty thorough story from Saturday from the Hartford Courant, and the editorial they ran today. -- Steve
 
http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-twain-plea-0806-20110805,0,3817031.story
 
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-twain-house-bleeding-20110810,0,7289427.story

Steve Courtney
7 Union St.
Terryville, CT 06786
860-589-6412

 

> Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:54:31 -0700
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Embezzlement at Mark Twain House. (LA Times)
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Thought you'd all want to know if you hadn't seen this yet. Also some of
> the links below were interesting, and I hadn't seen the articles before.
> Arianne Laidlaw
> 
> 
> Mark Twain House employee embezzled $1 million
> August 9, 2011 | 8:30 am
> 
> [image: increase text
> size]<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/08/mark-twain-house-employee-embezzled-1-million.html?track=icymi#>[image:
> decrease text size]<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/08/mark-twain-house-employee-embezzled-1-million.html?track=icymi#>
> ****
> <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/08/mark-twain-house-employee-embezzled-1-million.html#comments>
> **6**
> <http://twitter.com/share?url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/08/mark-twain-house-employee-embezzled-1-million.html&text=Mark%20Twain%20House%20employee%20embezzled%20%241%20million&via=latimesbooks>
> 38
> 
> 
> [image: Marktwainhouse_ct]<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef014e8a804d0f970d-pi>
> 
> An employee of the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Conn., has
> admitted in court to embezzling $1 million from the organization that
> maintains the author's historic home. The Mark Twain House, like the homes
> of some of America's other best-known writers, has faced financial
> difficulties. Most, however, were not systematically plundered.
> 
> Longtime (and now former) staffer Donna Gregory regularly raided the
> organization's coffers for eight years; she pleaded
> guilty<http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/05/us-crime-marktwain-idUSTRE77476H20110805>
> to
> charges of wire fraud and filing a false tax return, Reuters reports.
> 
> According to court documents, Gregor submitted false information over the
> Internet to the Mark Twain House payroll vendor between 2002 and 2010. The
> misinformation allowed additional pay to which she was not entitled to be
> deposited into her bank account, classified as payroll advances.
> 
> She then adjusted the ledgers to cover up the advances by reclassifying the
> amounts as utilities, maintenance and similar items. She also falsified the
> Mark Twain House's bank statements to hide the advances, authorities said.
> 
> Gregor used the Mark Twain House's check-writing system to write checks
> payable to herself and forged her supervisor's signatures on those checks,
> authorities said.
> 
> A board member of the home said the fraud was discovered when a bank staffer
> questioned some signatures. Gregory faces a maximum of 23 years in prison, a
> $2-million fine and will be ordered to pay back the Mark Twain House and its
> insurance company.
> 
> *RELATED:*
> 
> Mark Twain stamp hits post offices June
> 25<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/mark-twain-stamp.html>
> 
> Inside the next volume of Twain's
> autobiography<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/03/next-volume-mark-twain-autobiography.html>
> 
> Could a movie save Edgar Allan Poe's Baltimore
> house?<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/08/could-the-poe-movie-save-edgar-allan-poe-house-baltimore.html>
> 
> [*For the Record, 6:16 p.m., Aug. 9: *An earlier version of this post said
> the Twain House is in West Hartford, Conn.]
> 
> -- Carolyn Kellogg
> 
> *Photo: The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn. Credit: Jim Bourg / Reuters*