Former Joplin nonprofit director sentenced to 33 months

Robert A. Clay, 52, will report to the U.S. Marshal’s Office for incarceration Oct. 4, said Special Agent Bonnie MacLeod, a spokeswoman for the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Division.

In May, Clay pleaded guilty to embezzling the money from the Boys & Girls Club between August 1998 and March 2004.

Clay served as Boys & Girls Club executive director from the late 1980s to Nov. 20, 2003, and oversaw the organization’s general operating bank account.

According to court documents, Clay opened a money market account Nov. 14, 1997, at the First State Bank of Joplin to deposit a $20,000 federal grant for a new Boys & Girls Club in Miami, Okla.

Federal prosecutors said Clay was supposed to close the account after the grant was distributed but kept it open unbeknownst to the club’s board of directors.

Over the next six years, Clay allegedly deposited $597,749 into the First State account in contributions, grants and donations, all of which should have been deposited into the club’s general operating account at U.S. Bank in Joplin, according to court documents. Clay allegedly withdrew $597,698 from the First State account and used a portion of it for his own benefit.

Clay pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud for redirecting a $50,500 grant to the First State account and one count of money laundering for transferring that money into a personal account.

The IRS and the Joplin Police Department investigated the embezzlement case.