Charity employee charged with theft

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A woman accused of stealing nearly $50,000 from a local charity branch may be on the run.

A spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff's Office said deputies have tried to serve an arrest warrant at two addresses listed for Lisa Dorhauer, 55, with no success. She was indicted for theft by a Travis County grand jury in November 2010.

Dorhauer worked as an administrative assistant and paralegal for Lutheran Social Services, said a spokesperson for the non-profit.

"She was falsifying some documents that enabled her to steal money from the agency," said Lutheran Social Services spokesperson, Scott Carroll. "To us, it appeared to be an internal scam using our accounting system that eventually caught up with her."

An indictment alleges Dorhauer was stealing money from May 2008 to April 2010, nearly the entire tenure of her employment. She was fired when the fraud was uncovered.

Carroll said the charity, which provides services for children, the elderly, and victims of disaster, has an annual operating budget of $100 million.

"It was a $50,000 theft, give or take, so does it threaten the financial health of the agency? Absolutely not - but it's still theft. It's still wrong the money didn't belong to her. That money would have gone toward helping those we serve," said Carroll.

Another nonprofit agency in Austin, Greenlights for NonProfit Success , works to educate charities and their boards to keep this type of incident from happening.

"If there is something that doesn't seem right - be brave and try to get to the bottom of it and know that there's organizations like Greenlights that are here to help," said Ann Starr.

The agency recommends non-profits do annual audits of their financial information and have an internal system of checks and balances.

They are hosting a Financial Integrity Town Hall event on June 16.