YUMA, AZ -A former Yuma high school teacher is indicted after a 4 year investigation of misusing funds.
Former Yuma High school teacher Mark Rau has been charged with five felony counts of misusing public money and tampering with public records.
Yuma Union High School District officials launched an investigation back in 2007 after they found irregularities in financial reporting by Rau.
The case was then picked up by Arizona's Auditor General Office.
"We as a district self reported that minute we thought that there was a problem," Toni Badone, superintendent of the Yuma Union High School District said. "We didn't know how deep the problem was or how long it had been actually going on but we reported immediately to auditor's general office."
Rau started out as a business teacher at Yuma High school in 1996.
For several year, Rau was the DECA student club sponsor, a club for students in marketing and business classes.
District officials said he managed fundraising money, money deposits and maintained financial records.
They said he was also in charge of Yuma high's "cell block" student store.
The auditor's report says Rau misused at least $86,276 dollars earned by or intended to benefit students involved in the DECA program.
"As much as everybody wants to trust everybody and I believe in trust and our district is built on trust, trust is built when you have a good processing you can see right to the penny," Badone said.
The auditor's report said he deposited the money into his personal bank account and used the money to pay for personal debt and expenses.
The report also said Rau falsified public documents when he prepared or authorized at least 25 instances of false information related to his mismanagement of the DECA club and student store.
Rau was fired in 2008 following his refusal to testify in an employment hearing.
Badone said since then they've taken extra measures to secure legitimate financial record keeping.
"We've actually increased personnel in the area of financial oversight within our district since 2007 even though its an austere time, economically, we feel it's really important that we have as much perfection as possible," she said.
The report said since district officials did not adequately monitor the student store activity, the complete amount of public money misused or stolen cannot be determined.
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