Dewayne L. Powell, former vice president of finance and business services for east side Madison’s Goodman Community Center, is facing nine felony charges after allegedly embezzling over $600,000 in center funds for his personal use, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Charges include theft, as Powell allegedly used credit cards issued by his former employer to pay for trips, family members’ phone bills, gambling at Ho-Chunk casinos in Madison and Baraboo, and more. The complaint, filed Wednesday, includes a spreadsheet of the alleged purchases that runs to nearly 50 pages and includes hundreds of payments made with seven different credit cards from April 2021–June 2024.
Letesha Nelson, the Goodman Community Center’s president and executive director, discovered the alleged thefts in June after Lake Ridge Bank alerted her of issues with $900 in center checks Powell had reportedly made out to himself. The prior year’s audit of credit card payments had not flagged any problems, but in light of the suspicious checks, the organization sought a different auditor to review transactions on two credit cards, finding some that were clearly unrelated to authorized Goodman purchases.
Powell was fired from his position at Goodman in late June and denied the theft in a police interview. Nelson on Wednesday released the following statement regarding the charges against the former employee, confirming “the charges focus on an isolated matter that did not involve anyone else at our center.
“With the support of our finance and audit committee, we made internal changes to our financial policies and processes to ensure that the integrity and security of our finances were protected. We also immediately retained a forensic accounting firm, who completed their own investigation of all of Goodman Community Center’s (GCC) financials, concluding the sophisticated impropriety involved one individual who misused money for personal expenses. These findings also show that no grant money or restricted donor funds were in effect used to cover these fraudulent purchases.
“As a community organization with 70 years of service to our families, we are heartbroken by this situation. This has been a violation of our trust and a breach of the goodness of those who support Goodman. Rest assured, we will move forward together in strength. We won’t let the wrongdoings of one individual define our legacy, good work, programs, and people that make our center essential for so many in Madison.
“On behalf of the entire GCC community, we are thankful to local law enforcement and the DA’s office for their diligent efforts resulting in this decision. We have been awaiting this day and we now look forward to resolution and justice for the wrongdoings that were committed against our center and community.
“Now we are entering a more public phase of this process, and as the justice system performs its duty, our focus will be on ensuring the success of GCC and its mission.”
