I’m often asked what motivates smart well educated people to make dumb stupid choices. Sometimes their choices leave you wondering what were they thinking. In this case, as Dana Cope, the former executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, was carted off to state prison, the larger question is where was the oversight for the organization? This is an example of an Association Ethics Failure.
According to a News & Observer report by Joseph Neff:
Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens sentenced Cope to 58 to 82 months in state prison. Cope paid $165,000 in restitution to the state employees association earlier Tuesday. He still owes $345,000.
Cope, 46, who worked for the Association for 15 years, plead guilty to two felonies. Seems the embezzled funds were used to support his lifestyle. My guess is his crime didn’t start big – they never do. Rather, if his theft holds true to form, he found a weakness in the system of internal controls (if there were any) and over time exploited them. The outcome is significant for Cope, his family and many more that surrounded him over the years as he “served” the Association. When there’s an association ethics failure, my guess is the board never saw it coming even though it was staring them in the face.
Cope was trusted. He was trust so much so that the SEANC executive committee denied the truth of an earlier report by the News and Observer where they reported that Cope used SEANCE checks to pay a landscaping company for personal work do to his residence along with other items of misappropriation. It’s easy to believe in someone and get caught up in their illusion – even in the face of evidence to the contrary. This is an example of how an association ethics failure happens and the importance of being at
Once the N&O began their work, it seems that people with inside information provided documentation that ultimately supported Cope’s admission of guilty, conviction and sentence. The N&O reported:
Many of the documents for The N&O’s investigation were provided by a former SEANC treasurer, Betty Jones, who said she was bringing the records forward to save the organization. Jones and Art Anthony, a second former SEANC board member turned whistleblower, watched in court Tuesday along with their lawyer, Michael Weisel.
The day after the article was published, Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman started an investigation. Cope resigned one day later.
The national union with which SEANC is affiliated, the Service Employees International Union, subsequently paid for an internal audit that found a half million dollars in improper spending.
Cope was indicted on two felony charges that he spent $570,000 of the association’s money on flight lessons, home appliances, vacations and other unauthorized purchases.
Many are asking why…
When life gets out of balance – when one’s NEED increases for whatever reason, the nature of our human existence is to bring it back into balance. In this case an association ethics failure is the outcome, but that is only one way humans find ways of trying to find balance.
Cope’s life was out of balance. He filed for bankruptcy in 2014 thereby wiping out $109,000 of credit card debt. I am not here to judge. Having spent time in federal prison, I know the simplicity of how one makes unethical choices that lead to consequences that one never dreams of. It seems clear in Cope’s case he suffered from an inability to live a lifestyle that was within his means.
Cope spent $618 at the Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary on massages, a pedicure and a manicure, and a Babassu (BAH-bah-sue) Sugar Scrub. Later Cope returned to the Umstead to spend $112.87 on an afternoon of kids’ doughnuts and upscale desserts such as panna cotta, coulant and affogatos. Cope spent $4,550 on a tailor in Hong Kong and $295 at Charles Tyrwhitt, a London clothier known as “Home of the Proper Shirt.” He paid $1,400 for a children’s playhouse and spent $1,000 to rent a boat at Lake Jordan for a week for three adults and two children. His spending spree went further in that he spent $1,500 on a lifetime family membership at the North Carolina Zoo and $4,565 on airplane tickets and a six-day stay with his wife at a luxury hotel in Bermuda. Much of Cope’s trouble stemmed from projects at his home on Sturbridge Court. The house underwent major renovations in 2013, followed by extensive landscaping work. Work on a backyard pool was halted in February, after The N&O’s report about his spending.
Starting on the Slippery Slope:Ethical lapses don’t start big! They start small and over time when there is no consequence they tend to escalate until you no longer recognize the fact that what is being done is no longer unethical. By this time, unethical has often become illegal and the consequences are devastating.
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