Ex-treasurer who lifted $200K from Hilton Head POA won’t be criminally charged. Why?
Board members of the Broad Pointe POA on Hilton Head declined to press charges against ex-secretary Patricia Butville, who embezzled nearly $200,000 from the association’s reserve account for “personal expenses” over the course of four years, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Criminal charges are not being pursued against Butville because she has already paid back $150,500 of the missing funds, said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Master Sgt. Danny Allen. Butville signed a confession of judgment, filed June 28 with the Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas, legally requiring her to return the remaining $46,824.50 by June 23, 2024.
Butville is also required to reimburse about $15,000 in legal fees for the Broad Pointe POA, according to court documents. Because some “legitimate expenses” were paid for using POA funds that had been transferred to Butville’s personal bank account, board members agreed to grant her a $15,000 credit as a “reasonable estimate” of the expenses she had rightfully paid on behalf of the POA.
The agreement also prohibits Butville from serving as a director or fiduciary of the Broad Pointe POA for the next 10 years.
POA board members reported Butville’s embezzlement April 15 to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. Although the case has been closed, future criminal charges aren’t an impossibility, Allen said; Broad Pointe leadership told the Sheriff’s Office they would contact police again if additional wrongdoing surfaced.
Board members informed the community about the missing funds in a June 30 letter, telling POA members Butville had “prepared and circulated misleading financial reports” to the board, all while regularly issuing checks to herself from the association’s reserve fund.
At least two of the homeowners in the community expressed frustration to the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that Butville was not being prosecuted for her unauthorized siphoning of the POA’s reserve funds into her personal accounts. These homeowners have requested and received anonymity because they are not authorized to speak by the board.
Transaction records show Butville’s first theft from the POA was in the amount of $8,000 on Dec. 12, 2018, when she was not a member of the board and should not have had access to the reserve account. From then on, she withdrew money about once or twice per month, with amounts ranging from $90 to $15,000.
Butville served as secretary in 2012 and 2013 and as the board’s president in 2014, but did not fill any leadership position from 2015 to 2018. Her new tenure as treasurer began in 2019, lasting until her 2023 resignation.
As treasurer, Butville was sole signatory for the Broad Pointe POA’s account, which was “never audited” over the years. The June 30 letter says the POA has now instituted “proper checks and balances,” such as allowing both the treasurer and president full online access to financial activity. Later this year, the reserve account will be placed under the management of the Indigo Run Association, whose accounts are fully audited.
When all the funds are reimbursed by Butville, the association estimates they will have a balance in their reserve account around $185,000, which would be their “strongest financial position to date,” the letter says.
Current members of the Broad Pointe POA board, including president Vince Murphy and treasurer Craig Thornton, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon. POA president Vince Murphy, secretary Dahlia Handman and member-at-large Gray Smith declined to comment.
Butville declined to comment.
This story was originally published July 22, 2023 at 8:04 AM.
