Stevens Hospital has fired its payroll manager and is bringing in an accounting firm to review its payroll records.
The actions were taken after the payroll manager pleaded guilty to a felony charge involving accounting problems at her previous employer, Cutter &Buck.
“There’s no indication at this time that anything has transpired that is improper in payroll,” hospital spokeswoman Beth Engel said. “We are doing the audit just as a precaution.”
Athena Diaz, 28, of Seattle, was hired at the Edmonds hospital in February 2003. She notified hospital officials of the court action, Engel said, and was terminated last week. No severance or paid leave was granted.
Diaz could not be reached for comment. At the request of The Herald, the hospital called Diaz, but she did not wish to comment on the case, Engel said.
Her attorney, Jay Stansell, an assistant federal public defender, could not be reached for comment.
Diaz previously worked as comptroller for Cutter &Buck, a Seattle-based golf apparel company. She was fired in August 2002.
“We had no indication she had a history of any financial misdealing,” Engel said. “Her Washington State Patrol and other background checks all checked out. People who worked with her had very positive comments on her work performance.”
Stephen Scott Lowber, 53, of Mill Creek, Cutter &Buck’s former chief financial officer, in August was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly in Seattle to three months in prison and three months of home confinement for covering up a multimillion-dollar accounting fraud.
Diaz pleaded guilty to knowingly circumventing internal accounting controls, a felony, while working at Cutter &Buck, according to Jeff Coopersmith, an assistant U.S. attorney.
As a result of her actions, the company had to file financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission admitting that false information about sales performance had been submitted, Coopersmith said.
However, there was no evidence that Diaz profited personally from her actions, Coopersmith said. She is scheduled for sentencing in November.
The hospital administration was aware at the time Diaz was hired that Cutter &Buck had fired her, Engel said.
“We had no idea about the financial information,” she said. “That was not information relayed to us.”
The accounting firm KPMG has been hired to review hospital payroll records. The firm has conducted audits of the hospital since 2002.
The review is expected to take three to five days, Engel said. There was no estimate on how much the review would cost.
Hospital policies require that the compensation manager is the only person who can enter or delete information such as payroll rates on the computer system, Engel said.
“That’s a check and balance set up within our system,” Engel said. “That’s why there’s a low likelihood that anything improper occurred.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
