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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowMichael Meenan, the former longtime director of information services for the Indianapolis-based National Federation of High School Associations, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
The 60-year-old Meenan, who worked at the nonprofit from 1999 to 2021, also received two years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $543,521 in restitution.
The FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office investigated the case, and the sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon.
In his job as director of information services, Meenan was responsible for purchasing technology equipment using an employee credit card.
Investigators say that as early as 2007, Meenan began making unauthorized personal purchases with his company-issued credit card for items including high-end cameras and lenses, Apple and Southwest Airlines gift cards, and cycling equipment.
Meenan also used the credit card on Amazon gift card balance reloads, then used the reloaded balances to acquire additional photography and cycling items for his personal use, investigators said.
Court papers say Meenan created doctored receipts to hide the fraudulent transactions from management and accounts payable staff.
In total, Meenan made roughly 1,173 unauthorized transactions using his employee credit card, resulting in a financial loss of $543,521.13 to the organization.
When his employer confronted Meenan about accounting discrepancies in 2021, he immediately confessed to the scheme, investigators said.
“Nonprofits are especially vulnerable to fraud because they often lack the resources to prevent or recover from financial losses, said Tom Wheeler, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, in written remarks. “The defendant, a trusted employee for more than 20 years, stole money meant to support the organization’s mission and betrayed colleagues who had relied on him for decades.”
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