March 16, 2016
Source/Philadelphia District Attorney's Office
Joyce Levitt, 61, former CFO of Visit Philadelphia, has been charged with theft and fraud after allegedly embezzling $200,000 from the tourism marketing group.
The former chief financial officer of the city's tourism marketing firm, Visit Philadelphia, turned herself in to authorities on Wednesday to face charges of theft, fraud, forgery and related offenses.
Prosecutors allege that Joyce Levitt, 61, stole $200,000 from Visit Philadelphia between September 2005 and February 2012 to pay personal expenses, including credit card bills, dinners at expensive restaurants and items from a New York-based furrier, Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams said.
“Visit Philadelphia let Joyce Levitt watch the ledger books and $200,000 of the agency’s money charged out the door,” Williams said in a statement.
In a statement on Levitt's arrest, Williams noted that she was hired by the marketing firm in 2003 and became CFO in September 2005 tasked with managing the non-profit organization's finances, monitoring hotel tax income and cash flow, overseeing grants, and compiling financial statements.
The major source of funding for Visit Philadelphia – formerly known as the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation – is tax revenue, as the firm receives about 18 percent of the city's total hotel tax receipts.
For the 2015 fiscal year, that will amount to about $11 million for Visit Philadelphia through the 8.5 percent hotel tax, Williams noted.
An investigation by the district attorney's office and a 2011 audit alleges that Levitt used a company credit card to rack up about $118,806 in personal expenses – including $19,470 in dinners at "high-end local restaurants," $18,734 on purchases at big box stores, $4,106 on skin care treatments at a business in New Jersey and more than $1,500 to a furrier in New York.
In addition, she allegedly used her company card to pay personal credit card bills, Williams said.
Levitt faces 20 counts of forgery, Williams said, for allegedly writing 20 checks between June 2007 and April 2011 – for a total of $83,632 – on a Visit Philadelphia account, signing the checks with a signature stamp without permission.
On Wednesday, Williams said Levitt's crimes came to light in June 2014 following an article in a "major Philadelphia newspaper."
That Inquirer story led to a grand jury investigation into Levitt's activities.
A 2011 audit allegedly revealed that Levitt did not submit receipts to support her purchases, even when she was requested to do so, Williams added.
He noted in a statement that, even when Levitt did submit information to auditors, amounts and dates did not match, some statements she submitted were only backed up by online printouts not originals, and she had no information at all to account for charges from October and November 2010 or from January through September 2011.
Auditors, the district attorney said in a statement, also allegedly found Levitt had voided and deleted entries in records she kept on her financial program, QuickBooks.
The district attorney's office started its investigation of Levitt in August 2014 and submitted it to the grand jury in January 2015.
A preliminary hearing date has not yet been set for Levitt.
