Big Bay de Noc School Embezzlement

A school district is Schoolcraft County is trying to recover after learning its former business manager was a thief.

That’s according to John Peterson, superintendent of the Big Bay de Noc School District in Cooks.

He says he contacted the Manistique State Police Post last month to report possible embezzlement by a subcontracted business manager working for the district.

She was fired from her job at that point.

The investigation turned up more than $800,000 missing — upwards of $100,000 per year, every year since 2002.

But Peterson says they’ll never know exactly how much she stole.

That’s because the former business manager has died since being fired.

Because of the effects a financial loss of that size can have on a small community, the U.S. Secret Service was also involved in the investigation.

Peterson says most of the stolen money has long since been spent, so there’s very little hope of ever getting it back.