Traverse City Record-Eagle
September 20, 2016
It looks like Kevin Wanzer isn't the only one laughing all the way to the bank!
Mark Noss was quoted in today's story, pooh-poohing a prepaid expense payment to Steven Ingersoll's Smart Schools Management, claiming the purported “draft June balance sheet” was a “huge, huge mistake” and his answer was reported as fact by the Record-Eagle. (A revised balance sheet, retaining the Prepaid Expense line item but dropping the 'SSM', was distributed during Friday's meeting of the Grand Traverse Academy board.)
Ever hear of a follow-up question?
If it wasn't a prepayment to Steven Ingersoll or his business entity, then exactly who was "prepaid"?
Strange, too, that the so-called holdover never popped up in any of the fiscal year's three previous quarters?
Hmmm?
Here's another one for you: if the so-called draft was indeed a mistake, why hasn't the corrected version been posted on Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), where the original version was posted on August 30, 2016?
Oh, you've never heard of EMMA?
EMMA is the official repository for information on virtually all municipal bonds, providing free access to official disclosures, trade data and other information about the municipal securities market.
The Grand Traverse Academy provides continuing disclosure financial documents to Wells Fargo Bank N. A., the trustee of the school's Series 2007 $16.2 million municipal bond, and those documents are posted on EMMA.
Among the documents are quarterly statements, including the June 30, 2016 balance sheet posted on August 30, 2016.
It's another dirty little secret not many people know: all this stuff is available publicly...you just need to know where to look. The news broke here, and was first published on this blog, including a follow-up story a few days later.
So, I might ask, did the Record-Eagle seek to verify the
And what about the claim that the SSM “label was a holdover from when his company received accounting software during the transition” from Ingersoll to Noss and Full Spectrum?
I suppose we're expected to accept that statement, but when did Microsoft Excel become accounting software?
Take a look below, and you'll see that the 'Document Properties' section from the version created August 29 and modified August 30 reveals the software that was used to create the Balance Sheet, and it wasn't QuickBooks! (I've obscured the identity of the Full Spectrum accountant whose name appears as the document's author.)
Microsoft Excel, king of the spreadsheets, is accounting software?
And, even more stunning, that software defaults to a continuous flow of money to Steven Ingersoll?
Wow!
But what do you expect from a guy who made multiple, even egregious, misstatements in two sworn affidavits? (It didn't take long for this to get out!)
Look, if you're going to mine my blog for stories, at least do your own homework.
Like this guy, Kevin Wanzer, who managed to get the Grand Traverse Academy to pay him $8,500 for a day's work.
Nice work, if you can get it!
