Southwest Mo. Boys & Girls Club director gets 33 months for stealing

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The former director of the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Missouri will serve 33 months in prison for embezzling $443,000 from the organization.

A federal judge on Friday also ordered Rob Clay, 52, of Joplin, to repay the money he stole.

Clay pleaded guilty in May to two counts of wire fraud, avoiding a trial that would have involved a wider range of charges. The two counts represent a $50,500 donation sent to the club from Famsea Corp. of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

Prosecutors said Clay funneled more than $597,000 in club contributions, grants and donations into a secret money market fund at First State Bank between August 1998 and March 2004. The club's board of directors didn't know about the transfers, and Clay diverted $443,143 to his own use, according to investigators with the Internal Revenue Service and Joplin police.

Clay had served the club for 22 years, including 15 as its director before resigning in November 2003.

Standing before U.S. District Judge Richard Dorrs, Clay on Friday said he had made a mistake and that his actions had seriously damaged the club.

"I hope and pray that leniency will be granted," he said.

In fact, the sentence was on the low end of a pre-sentence investigation, which recommended a prison term of between 33 and 41 months.

Defense attorney Phil Glades had asked that his client be put on supervised release instead of prison, but the U.S. Attorney's office said Clay's crimes were serious, had devastated the Boys & Girls Club of Joplin and represented an abuse of a position of trust.

Clay will serve five years of supervised release once released from prison.

Dorrs didn't levy a fine against Clay, saying it didn't appear he would have the means to pay it.