A state audit indicates the former director of a day care center in Tama used the center’s credit card to buy things like tanning lotion, alcohol, cigarettes, an ash tray and three copies of the sexually explicit “50 Shades of Grey” movie.
Auditors reviewed about six-and-a-half years’ worth of records for the “Kids’ Corner” day care in Tama and identified nearly $280,000 worth of questionable financial transactions.
Forty-six-year-old Kristine Daniel of Grinnell was arrested earlier this week. She’s accused of ongoing criminal conduct and money laundering. Auditors discovered information on her computer that suggests Daniel was re-selling cell phone accessories she bought on the day care’s dime.
The audit concluded Daniel used the day care credit card to buy $55,000 worth of merchandise not used at the day care and about $63,000 in CASH that parents paid the day care center was never deposited in the bank.
Daniel was fired in April of 2016 after the board that oversees the non-profit got complaints about unpaid bills and errors on the bills for parents who sent their kids to the center.