Comptroller: Fire company funds missing

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Comptroller: Fire company funds missing

Last updated: 1:20 p.m., Wednesday, October 24, 2007

HALFMOON - State auditors have determined that more than $62,000 is missing from a Saratoga County fire company, Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said today.

DiNapoli blamed poor record keeping and weak controls over financial transactions for the lost or stolen funds at the W.K. Mansfield Hose Company between 2001 and 2007.

After conducting an internal audit in January, fire officials contacted the Comptroller's Office and the State Police. Auditors found the company's treasurer had unlimited access to and control over company funds, and operated with virtually no oversight, enabling him to allegedly steal fire company money and conceal the theft, DiNapoli said in a press release.

The treasurer reportedly took money by making checks out to cash. Auditors attribute $43,461 of the missing money to him, the press statement says.

State police earlier this year arrested the treasurer, Lee Lussier, comptroller's office spokesman Bill Reynolds said. His wife, who was responsible for collecting money paid to the company for rentals of the fire hall, misappropriated at least $18,713, agency officials said. She did this through ATM withdrawals and by making checks out to cash, the office said. She has not been charged, Reynolds said.

The company serves the West Crescent Fire District and portions of the towns of Halfmoon and Clifton Park.