John S. Carter Has 99 Problems

Hey, did you know the Independence Seaport Museum is made of money? I mean, not literally, of course, although that particular situation is represented at right. (See, they haven’t had any renovations in a while, so the building is still covered with the old $100 bill.)

The museum accused its former president, John S. Carter, yesterday of defrauding the company of $2.4 million dollars. Wait. The Independence Seaport Museum has $2.4 million to defraud? I mean, no offense, but, ah, what?

The Seaport Museum also paid Carter $301,000 a year. This is more than the Art Museum head makes and approximately 330,000 times my salary. And yet he still allegedly stole — this is a legal term — “a ton of shit” from the museum, including these:

The suit said he also used a museum credit card to pay $1,315 to a sailmaker, saying it was an Enticer expense - “even though Enticer does not have sails.” [...]

In 2003, Carter claimed $16,771 worth of charges purportedly related to a meeting of the International Congress of Maritime Museums in England. But Carter’s credit-card receipts indicated that he and his wife were not in England, but instead had visited the French Riviera.

In 2004, the couple claimed $7,854 to attend the same conference in Europe, saying they had been to London, Nice and St. Tropez. The problem: The conference is held every other year. It didn’t meet in 2004.

Damn. I got to get myself a job blogging for the Independence Seaport Museum.

Ex-head of Seaport Museum accused of fraud [Inquirer]