LAWNDALE : School Employee Suspected in Alleged Check Forgeries
A Leuzinger High School employee is under investigation in the alleged forgery of a series of checks totaling $14,078.91 and withdrawal of money against the school’s student body account.
Centinela Valley School Supt. Joseph M. Carrillo said the district was alerted to the withdrawals early in January when Union Bank returned a check for $6,621.58 for insufficient funds.
The check had been drawn against school trust funds and deposited into the personal account of Leuzinger High School student store clerk Jeff Kern, bank officials told the school district. The district immediately placed Kern on leave and hired an accounting firm to audit the store account.
An audit by the accounting firm of Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co. found that signatures on eight checks totaling $23,863.91 probably had been forged. Despite the fraudulent signatures on some of the checks, auditors said, $9,785 of that amount was spent on legitimate disbursements.
The case has been referred to the sheriff’s forgery and fraud unitfor investigation.
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