CHEO Foundation says former employee ‘misdirected’ money raised through fundraising events

The CHEO Foundation discovered that money raised at a community event never made it to them and ex-employee is suspected. CTV’s Stefan Keyes reports.

The CHEO Foundation has launched an internal review and notified the Ottawa Police Service after a former employee allegedly “misdirected” money raised through third-party fundraising events.

In a statement, the CHEO Foundation said it discovered “that proceeds from certain community-organized third-party events were misdirected by a former employee.”

“Upon learning this, we launched an internal review, retained legal counsel, hired a forensic investigator, submitted a claim to our insurance company and reported the matter to Ottawa Police Services to determine the full scope of the situation,” the CHEO Foundation said.

“We are dismayed by this news and continue to work diligently to faithfully serve the children, youth and families in our region while the investigation is underway.”

CHEO Foundation president and CEO Steve Read told CTV News Ottawa the foundation learned about the incident earlier this month.

“One of the ways that we are supported is through many community third-party events — these are the car washes, the garage sales, many different ways that people support us — and we found that money that was intended to come to us as a result of proceeds from these events didn’t make it to us. It was entrusted to a former employee, and it didn’t make it to us,” Read said.

“We learned about this from talking to one particular event. We are now looking to understand if there are others involved.”

Read could not say how much money had been misdirected.

“That’s what we’re going to try and find out. That’s what the investigation is going to tell us in the next little while,” he said.

Read said the former employee’s role was to engage with community partners. The individual left the CHEO Foundation earlier this year. Read would not say how long the employee had worked for the CHEO Foundation but said the employee’s departure was not related to this event. He also would not identify which event led to the discovery of the misdirected funds.

CTV News Ottawa has reached out to the Ottawa Police Service for more information.

The CHEO Foundation raises and manages funding to support patient care and work at Ottawa’s children’s hospital, the CHEO Research Institute and Roger Neilson Children’s Hospice.

“This is absolutely gutting to us here at the CHEO Foundation. Everything that we do is based on trust, it’s based on relationships with donors who are kind enough to support us,” Read said.

“I can understand that people will be concerned, and I think what I would say to them is we are committed to being fully transparent about the work that we do with them.”

Read said the CHEO Foundation would be contacting event partners as soon as possible and encouraged them to reach out if they had concerns.

He assured donors that any donations made directly to the CHEO Foundation are secure.

“This specifically related to a community event where the intention was to have that brought to us. It never made it to us,” he said.

The CHEO Foundation says it is committed to working closely with investigators.

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