After highly critical audit, Move Minneapolis top executive is fired

Move Minneapolis office
Move Minneapolis operates out of this storefront in downtown Minneapolis. The organization was subject of a highly critical city audit released May 24.
Tim Nelson | MPR News

In the wake of a city audit that indicated records may have been altered to help secure federal dollars, the executive director of Move Minneapolis has been fired.

The action against Dan MacLaughlin was confirmed by the organization's board chair Tuesday. MacLaughlin had been on leave.

Move Minneapolis is the city's downtown transportation management organization, a small federally-funded nonprofit aimed at reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality.

An audit made public in May found the group may have falsified accounts and misdirected funds, in part to help win federal matching dollars.

In a City Council committee meeting, Minneapolis audit director Will Tetsell described suspected fraud and employee misconduct, citing kickbacks, "double dipping" and altered invoices, some of them for what he called "fictitious businesses." He said a laptop thought to have held some of the organization's records had also been scrubbed of nearly 1,200 files.

MacLaughlin told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he only used long-standing accounting practices and that computer files found deleted weren't part of the organization's official business.

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