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More Than $103K Missing From Sandy Hook Victims Fund, State Audit Finds

An audit requested by the state legislature found that more than $100,000 was unaccounted for from the Sandy Hook Victims Fund.

More than $100,000 is missing from the Sandy Hook Victims Fund

More than $100,000 is missing from the Sandy Hook Victims Fund

Photo Credit: File photo

The Fund - which is earmarked to help first responders and teachers who were at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on the day a gunman killed 26 people seven years ago - was reportedly co-mingled with cash from other sources, rather than being kept in a separate account of its own.

In total, approximately $103,000 is missing, and auditors are currently unable to determine what the misappropriated funds were used for.

The Office of Victim Services administered the account until 2015, before it was transferred to the United Labor Agency, a charity arm of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

According to reports, the probe into the Fund arose after State Representative Mitch Bolinsky was contacted by first responders who had PTSD claims denied. The case has since been brought to Attorney General William Tong.

“The Office of the Attorney General first learned of the co-mingled funds outlined in the State Auditor report the evening of Dec. 4, 2019,” according to the AG. “The Office of the Attorney General is currently carefully reviewing that report and evaluating further action.”

The ULA is planning on hiring its own outside independent investigator to conduct its own investigation into how the money was used.

“I would hope that anybody else who saw $103,000 missing would not conclude that this was resolved to our satisfaction,” House Republican leader Themis Klarides stated. “That money should be in one place. We should know where the money is going. 

"We should know what the money is being used for. This is very important to this state. This is very important to that town. This is very important to the people of the state of Connecticut.”

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