Fraud charges filed against ex-Visit Philadelphia finance chief
A former executive of Visit Philadelphia responsible for monitoring the city’s hotel tax revenues faces criminal charges for misappropriating more than $200,000.
Former Visit Philly chief financial officer Joyce Levitt was allowed to resign quietly in 2012 after repaying the money back to the tourism marketing agency.
However Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams chose to press ahead with legal action even though Visit Philly agreed not to report her after she returned the money.
"Some may say, if she did that, doesn’t that settle the matter? Well, no. just because you have forgiven them, that doesn’t mean a crime didn’t occur. These are taxpayer dollars. This money belongs to the public," Williams said.
Levitt, 61, faces charges of fraud, theft and forgery.
The DA’s office took up the case after a newspaper report uncovered the private deal between Levitt and Visit Philly.
Levitt joined the agency in 2003 and became its CFO in 2005, which is when the embezzlement began, the prosecutor’s office said.
Following the announcement of charges against Levitt, Visit Philadelphia issued a statement: "Upon discovery, we took immediate action and engaged legal counsel who advised us that our primary responsibility was to make the organization financially whole as soon as possible. We engaged experienced forensic auditors who determined the amount, and we were repaid in full five months after the discovery."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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