Kenneth Eng of Burnaby has been expelled from the Certified General Accountants Association of B.C. for using his employer's credit card to purchase personal items, then trying to conceal his actions.
The infractions occurred from January 2003 to August 2006, when Eng was working as business manager for the Fraser Academy, which specializes in teaching students with dyslexia and language-related learning disabilities. It is located on the west side of Vancouver.
(Readers should note that the CGA association has two members with the name Kenneth Eng. The other member, who lives in Smithers, has nothing to do with this matter.)
According to the CGA association, Eng charged personal items totalling about $80,000 using the school's credit card, then approved expense reports for him and "his boss," who was also improperly using the credit cards.
His "boss" is not named, but is known to be Eleanor Nesling, who served as Fraser Academy's "head of school" at the time.
Eng also prepared monthly financial statements and provided working papers to the employer's auditors based on information that he knew or ought to have known was false and misleading, the association said.
In May 2011, a CGA disciplinary panel found that Eng had breached its rules of conduct. It ordered that he be expelled and pay a $10,000 fine and $12,548 in costs.
Eng appealed the decision, but the association's appeals committee dismissed the appeal and tacked on another $6,406 in costs.
This matter initially came to public attention in November 2006, when the Fraser Academy dismissed Eng and Nesling and filed a statement of claim alleging they had conspired to use the school's credit card to buy personal clothing, restaurant meals, dry cleaning and fuel for personal vehicles, then falsely accounted for the purchases by placing them in "inaccurate or inappropriate" budget categories.
Both Eng and Nesling filed statements of defence denying liability. They also filed counterclaims, but the matter was eventually settled out of court. The terms were not disclosed. The current head of school, Maureen Steltman, did not return my telephone calls Tuesday.
Since June 2010, Eng has been working as director of finance and operations for the North Shore Disability Resource Centre Association, which provides services for disabled people and their families.
It is not clear whether officials of that association knew of Eng's past problems when they hired him, or whether they knew of his expulsion from the CGA association (which became effective on Dec. 19).
When I called the association's executive director, Liz Barnett, on Tuesday, she refused to answer any questions. And when I called Eng and introduced myself, there was a brief pause, then he hung up.
For more stories from the Vancouver Sun, click here.
