We recently asked the treasurer of our 501(c)(3) organization to resign due to inappropriate behavior and acting against a board-approved request. This person is a licensed accountant. This person refuses to give us our computer records as well as our receipts. We cannot go forward except to try to reconstruct banking records, which will still make the records incomplete. This person maintains that as a volunteer they do not have to give us any of the work that they did. This person signed our Form 990 each year. We did pay this person for some of the duties like invoicing and tax preparation. What can we do about this person?
As an officer of a nonprofit, a treasurer has a fiduciary duty to the organization, and failure to return basic documents without an adequate reason seems to be a violation of that duty. This person certainly needs a better reason than not being required to. But I wouldn’t pursue that line of obligation. I would pursue this person’s professional license.
Accountants generally have an ethical obligation to return records supplied by their clients. If your own requests have not gotten response, you could ask your lawyer to send a formal request, including a reminder of this person’s ethical duty. And if that doesn’t work, I would file a complaint with the appropriate state professional association or licensing board. You don’t describe the inappropriate behavior that caused the termination of this person’s position, but this person probably will not want to have the entire situation aired before a reviewing authority. It is a whole lot easier to give the records back.
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