The staff of a nonprofit promoting alternative transportation in Minneapolis overbilled a federal grant and destroyed hundreds of documents when the city began investigating, a city auditor said Tuesday.
Dan MacLaughlin, the executive director of Move Minneapolis since 2010, was placed on leave by the group's board after the findings this week from the city's audit department. Auditors also found evidence MacLaughlin's work computer was used to view pornography and make pirated copies of movies.
Move Minneapolis, created by the city in the early 1990s and formerly known as Commuter Connection, is best known for promoting transit, bicycling and carpooling at its new headquarters on 5th Street and Nicollet Mall. It has four full-time employees.
The organization is largely funded through a federal grant exceeding $300,000 a year, which reimburses 80 percent of their eligible expenses. Auditors found Move Minneapolis had overcharged the grant by more than $50,000 between 2012 and 2015, resulting in more than $37,000 in extra reimbursements.
"They were making money off the grant in some of these situations," the city's internal auditor, Will Tetsell, told the city's audit committee Tuesday.
MacLaughlin declined to comment on the audit when reached by phone Tuesday. The organization's most recent tax filing showed he earned $68,900 in 2014.
Suspicions about conduct at Move Minneapolis arose in 2014 when an employee resigned and made a number of allegations to the board and a key city official. The city initially hired an outside accounting firm to conduct a review, then embarked on a more in-depth probe after receiving its findings.
The overcharges occurred when Move Minneapolis received discounts from vendors, but billed the grant for the full amount, Tetsell said. The difference was used to cover the grant's 20 percent local match requirement.
