License suspended: Cookeville CPA took funds from son’s sports club

PUTNAM COUNTY – Cookeville CPA Mark Fontenot has been disciplined and fined by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance Board of Accountancy for taking funds from his son’s lacrosse club.

Fontenot, a Tennessee Tech graduate and an accountant since 1986, took $10,000 while serving as treasurer for the Cookeville Lacrosse Club in 2012-13. He paid the money back and reported himself to the state in December 2013. Fontenot said he had “temporarily used club funds for personal purposes” during that time. Last month, the state board suspended his CPA license for five years and fined him $5,000.

By the time he contacted the board, Fontenot had already met with club officers, who had an independent CPA review the financial records, and had refunded the money he took, but he wanted guidance on how to resolve his actions with his standing as a licensed CPA.

The board suspended his license for five years, effective Dec. 16, during which time Fontenot cannot provide “any accounting services for which a Tennessee CPA license is required.” The board also fined him $5,000, to be paid in monthly installments of $500 through September, and ordered him to complete two hours of ethics training.

 

Liz Engel is the editor of the Upper Cumberland Business Journal. She can be reached at liz@ucbjournal.com

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