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!

17 Thoughts on “Mayor Huether’s Nephew in Deep with Gear Up scandal

  1. Here is a question for someone wiser than me. If IM 22 was still intact, would it be legal for a state legislator to have an accounting contract with a cooperative, like GEARUP, which receives federal and state aid and sponsorship?

  2. matt johnson on March 1, 2017 at 9:01 am said:

    they are looking for deep pockets- accountants will have some sort of insurance who are the “independent citizens” posing the questions? I’m sure they have no ax to grind not saying this was handled well at all but their have not been a lot of answers about where Obama’s stimulus money went there are not a lot of pictures of the new roads and bridges

  3. The D@ily Spin on March 1, 2017 at 9:16 am said:

    Is Huether and relatives a crime syndicate? Changing parties has become like a mulligan do over in golf. Reagan was quoted ‘You have to be an actor to be president’. Maybe you must change parties to not be criminally prosecuted.

  4. Reagan changed parties, too…..

  5. sheepherder on March 1, 2017 at 2:40 pm said:

    Didn’t realize that Kyle was Huether’s nephew. That is interesting, to say the least!?!?!?!?

  6. l3wis on March 1, 2017 at 3:02 pm said:

    Does Kyle live in Parkston or Scotland?

  7. Initial indications are that Schoenfish has a strong case against Mid Central’s allegations. The Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ) web site is running a story tomorrow that I wrote on this development. The more intriguing things about the class action are: 1) the board members are being sued as individuals as part of the action; and 2) there are many named parties in the suit that are not being sued themselves.

  8. possum jenkins on March 1, 2017 at 3:22 pm said:

    scotland i presume
    there is no need to hunt the poor boy down(yet)
    i hereby christen him
    dimples

    must run in da fambly
    obg iaal

  9. l3wis on March 1, 2017 at 3:51 pm said:

    While I agree that Kyle cannot be personally responsible for the missing money, he does have a responsibility to report it was missing, unless of course he was getting something under the table like the rest.

  10. Commander you are so smart<Does suprime mike like you speaking up at those city hall meetings

  11. the lowly independent on March 1, 2017 at 9:15 pm said:

    shoulda passed the nonpartisan election measure last November people!!! THEN THEY CAN’T PLAY THESE GAMES!!! SEE WHAT HAPPENS! LET THIS BE A LESSON!

  12. l3wis on March 1, 2017 at 10:07 pm said:

    Instead of more ethics laws, we need to elect ethical people. I wish voters would do more research on our legislative candidates. I think instead of a R or D behind the names we should print their IQ scores.

  13. My story for NPQ has been posted this morning: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/03/02/cooperatives-defense-blame-auditors-not-board/

    Note my comment about the 2014 audit report.

  14. l3wis on March 2, 2017 at 9:52 am said:

    Michael, while you make good points, as I have said, it all depends if Kyle was ‘in on the fix’. Maybe the other defendants know something we don’t and why they are dragging Kyle into it.

  15. I’ve seen the 2013-2014 audit prepared by Schoenfish & Co. In my opinion, no auditor points out a client’s material weaknesses eight years in a row – in writing – if they’re a party to a conspiracy.

  16. Did Schoenfish’s accounting firm have any other accounting contracts with the state at the time of the GEAR UP concerns? This is a question, which needs to be answered in order to better understand the accounting firm’s actions or lack of actions as the auditor of GEAR UP.

    Being a whistle blower in a one party state might be to costly to a firm, that is dependent upon state contracts for its bread and butter.

  17. l3wis on March 2, 2017 at 2:46 pm said:

    You are right Michael, no auditor would say that about the same client for 8 years in a row, because by the 2nd year they would have realized something fishy was going on.

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