Someone needs to tell Representative Schoenfish there is no ‘I’ in Teamwork

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I have done a lot of things for SD, except answer key questions about the GearUp program

Kyle wants you to know all the great things HE did in Pierre this last year (notice he leaves out his stellar performance as GearUp’s auditor);

I have been appointed to the workforce housing summer study by the legislative executive board. My experience as a CPA working on muncipal audits and housing/rental components of income taxes will be beneficial on the committee.

Maybe these are some things that Kyle should be answering;

1)How long has Schoenfish and Company conducted audits of Mid-Central Educational Cooperative?

2)How many years were you Kyle Schoenfish personally involved with doing the audits and what years where they?

3)What was your response Kyle as an auditor to the discrepancies in the monthly balances shown in Mid-Central’s financial reports from June 2011 through March 2014?

4)What other irregularities did your audits find in Mid-Central’s finances that might be related to the improper use of funds that has led to criminal charges for Mid-Central personnel?

5)When did you first become aware or suspect in your audits of businesses associated with the  Westerhuis’s of what SD Attorney General has described as misappropriating “at least” $1.2 Million from the state and federally funded GEAR UP program?

6)When, to whom, and how did you report these $1.2 misappropriations?

7)When did you first become aware or suspect what SD Attorney General describes as 17 illegal secret contracts let by Dan Guericke, worth $3.8 million, that were not lawfully approved? 

8)When, to whom, and how did you report these $3.8 million worth of illegal contracts?

9)When did you first become aware or suspect what SD Attorney General reports was evidence in the Gear Up  financial records of over $300,000 of “…misuse, or misapplication of monies designated for Native Americans and their education.” By Stacy Phelps, Dan Guericke, and Stephanie Hubers? 

10)When, to whom, and how did you report $300,000 of “…misuse, or misapplication of monies designated for Native Americans and their education?”

Where was the oversight of Gear Up from the state, the education dept, the Feds and the auditor Schoenfish?

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If you look at the audit, you begin to scratch your head;

A new audit report shows that a now-dead couple who helped administer South Dakota’s GEAR UP college-readiness program made unauthorized withdrawals totaling more than $7.8 million from the Platte-based educational cooperative where they worked.

The Department of Legislative Audit report released Friday says much of the money was returned, but roughly $1.4 million remained missing after their deaths in 2015.

How could all of the state organizations and independent auditor miss this especially since it was apparent for years that NONE of the kids were going to college? If they think the only ones involved are the three clowns that are still alive from Mid Central and Scott Westerhuis and his wife, they are sadly mistaken. I hope when this goes to trial they spill the beans and name everyone involved in this scam, including the State Department of Education and Kyle Schoenfish, the auditor. You would honestly have to be the worst accountant on the planet to not catch this much missing and misappropriated money or you were bribed. Both may be true.

SEN Nelson calls out fellow lawmaker Kyle Schoenfish for GEAR-UP audits

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Stace is not the only one who is wondering how the audits didn’t catch such obvious corruption;

There have been significant concerns and questions expressed by voters in our district, by other legislators, and even KELO’s Angela Kennecke in a news story, regarding our district Rep. Kyle Schoenfish’s reported involvement in the auditing of certain entities at the center of this scandal. On Jan. 31, I officially forwarded those questions to Rep. Schoenfish. He responded on Feb. 4 stating the questions were “..fairly easy to address.” Despite that statement, to date he has refused to provide answers to those questions asked by Kennecke and others. Additionally, Rep. Schoenfish failed to show up for two of our district’s five cracker barrels (legislative forums), one in Corsica on Feb. 16, and the other in his hometown of Scotland on March 11. He now claims repeatedly in his articles to our local papers that he has been “attacked” by “dishonest politicians and people” and claims to be a victim of “meritless political attacks.”

Rep. Schoenfish is being “attacked” by his own record and the ugly appearance that comes from avoiding answering questions that the public has a right to have answered. In regards to his missing or avoiding cracker barrels, if I as a husband, daddy, grandfather, small Sioux Falls business manager, hobby farmer and busted-up old Marine can make time to meet my obligations and drive several hours to attend the voters’ cracker barrels to be answerable to you, I expect a young, single man living at home and working for his father to make time for the responsibilities he knowingly signed on to (and got paid for), or to resign if he is unwilling to do so.

Hey Stace, it’s hard work covering up lies.

Mayor Huether’s Nephew in Deep with Gear Up scandal

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The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

We’ve talked about Mr. Schoenfish in the past, he has been the mayor’s favorite nephew for quite awhile. Kyle received campaign donations from Uncle Mike when he first ran for the legislature as a Democrat, and after losing that race, he realized putting an ‘R’ behind his name was the winning ticket, Uncle High Crimes slipped him some more money that time to. Ironically, Mike left the Democratic party to, it’s a family thing I guess, when the going gets tough . . . the tough switches parties. I wonder if the ‘R’ behind Kyle’s name will be enough to save him this time?

It looks like he is finally going to see his day in court over being the auditor for Mid Central and Gear Up;

The Co-op, which is now defunct, is pointing fingers at its accounting firm which performed yearly audits for more than a decade.

It’s the accounting firm of a current lawmaker, Kyle Schoenfish. Schoenfish is a Republican representative from Scotland, SD.

It is also no secret that Kyle has been looked at from the beginning on the Gear Up investigation;

We looked at Schoenfish’s audit report on Mid Central from July of 2013 to 2014, right before the South Dakota Legislative audit found problems with GEAR UP.

Schoenfish said, “We identified certain deficiencies in internal control that we consider to be material weaknesses. It did find that over an eight year period “errors and omissions were noted in the annual finance statements prepared by cooperative officials.”   Mid Central promised to be more “accurate and complete” when preparing financial statements.

KELOLAND News tried to reach Kyle Schoenfish Tuesday for comment.  We’ll let you know when we hear back from him.

This isn’t the first time the accounting firm of Schoenfish & Company has been under scrutiny over not catching the misuse of GEAR UP funds.

An independent group of citizens has prepared a list of ten questions it would like lawmaker Kyle Schoenfish to answer and has submitted them to the South Dakota Auditor General.

They specifically ask about discrepancies in Mid Central’s balances and if Schoenfish ever reported them to anyone outside of Mid Central. We’ve posted those ten questions online on this story if you’d like to read them.

Maybe Stormland should be calling MMM, see what he knows? Too bad you couldn’t keep those audits secret like the Events Center siding settlement. I wonder if Uncle Hubris will come to the rescue of his favorite nephew if he is charged and faces jail time? Get Fiddle Faddle on it!