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The former director of the Smithsonian Latino Center charged the office for personal expenses like salon, spa and gift shop purchases, solicited free tickets for the Latin Grammy Awards and stayed in four- and five-star hotels while traveling for business — often in upgraded rooms with ocean views and Jacuzzi suites, a report from the Smithsonian’s inspector general says.
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Pilar O’Leary
The director of the center, Pilar O’Leary, resigned on Feb. 8 after two and a half years in the post. At the time, the Smithsonian said only that she had stepped down and was being succeeded by an acting director.
But a report released on Monday after an inquiry by the inspector general, A. Sprightly Ryan, said, “The evidence gathered in this investigation indicates that on multiple occasions O’Leary violated these general ethical rules as well as specific prohibitions on conduct that constitutes or appears to constitute a conflict of interest.”
The institution released the report in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Post, said a Smithsonian spokeswoman, Linda St. Thomas.
The report also said that Ms. O’Leary, 39, solicited and accepted gifts “from prohibited sources” and used “Smithsonian resources for private gain.”
“She also violated the travel policy, particularly through repeated misuse of her Smithsonian-issued travel card,” the report said. “Finally, she also engaged in other questionable conduct that created an appearance of impropriety and could compromise public confidence in the Smithsonian.”
In a statement sent to The New York Times by e-mail on Monday, Ms. O’Leary denied that she had been reimbursed for personal expenses and said her supervisor’s office had authorized all of her travel. She said she was “proud of the Smithsonian Latino Center’s accomplishments under my direction.”
Ms. St. Thomas said that Ms. O’Leary had returned $2,066.55 to the Smithsonian as reimbursement for booking a far fancier hotel suite than its allowance allowed, for filing expenses on a business trip that were already covered by another organization and for charging the institution $600 to move 40 pieces of donated outdoor furniture to her house that had been stored in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building.
The Smithsonian has been buffeted by scandal over the last year and a half. Its previous top executive, Lawrence A. Small, resigned in March 2007 after an investigation yielded revelations of lavish personal spending.
The Smithsonian, made up of 19 museums and other institutions, is under particular scrutiny because it receives 70 percent of its $1 billion budget from the federal government. After Mr. Small’s resignation, it cast a wide net for a new leader. Last month it announced that G. Wayne Clough, the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, would take over as secretary on July 1.
The inspector general’s report was heavily edited to conceal the names of individuals and groups from which Ms. O’Leary had received gifts or free tickets as well as people with whom she traveled — in some cases, friends.
It said that she regularly solicited tickets to social functions like concerts, fashion shows, and music awards, “sometimes asking for additional tickets for family and friends.”
In April 2007, having obtained free tickets to the Latin Billboard awards show (normal charge: $450 a person), Ms. O’Leary sent a message to the ticket source, saying, “Many thanks, [name redacted]! You are the best. One q: how d I get one extra ticket?”
Another message sent in relation to the event said: “Thanks again for everything, you are a [word redacted]! Do you know if the second ticket you gave me which is basically the after party invite with the silver sticker is better than the regular ticket?”
In April 2007, the report says, Ms. O’Leary allowed a for-profit company to pay for her hotel expenses without seeking approval. She also occasionally filed claims and received reimbursement for expenses that she did not actually incur given that she had received cash for some of her expenses from an outside source.
Dan Sheehy is the acting director of the Latino Center, which was founded in 1997 and has five staff members. It receives $1 million a year in federal money that is then distributed to various Latino-related programs.
On Monday, a Latino Center board member contacted The Times to express support for Ms. O’Leary. “Pilar did an excellent job as a director,” said the trustee, Thomas H. Castro, who said he had not seen the report. “She and the staff raised a lot of money and did a lot of innovative programming.”
Skip to next paragraph
Pilar O’Leary
The director of the center, Pilar O’Leary, resigned on Feb. 8 after two and a half years in the post. At the time, the Smithsonian said only that she had stepped down and was being succeeded by an acting director.
But a report released on Monday after an inquiry by the inspector general, A. Sprightly Ryan, said, “The evidence gathered in this investigation indicates that on multiple occasions O’Leary violated these general ethical rules as well as specific prohibitions on conduct that constitutes or appears to constitute a conflict of interest.”
The institution released the report in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Post, said a Smithsonian spokeswoman, Linda St. Thomas.
The report also said that Ms. O’Leary, 39, solicited and accepted gifts “from prohibited sources” and used “Smithsonian resources for private gain.”
“She also violated the travel policy, particularly through repeated misuse of her Smithsonian-issued travel card,” the report said. “Finally, she also engaged in other questionable conduct that created an appearance of impropriety and could compromise public confidence in the Smithsonian.”
In a statement sent to The New York Times by e-mail on Monday, Ms. O’Leary denied that she had been reimbursed for personal expenses and said her supervisor’s office had authorized all of her travel. She said she was “proud of the Smithsonian Latino Center’s accomplishments under my direction.”
Ms. St. Thomas said that Ms. O’Leary had returned $2,066.55 to the Smithsonian as reimbursement for booking a far fancier hotel suite than its allowance allowed, for filing expenses on a business trip that were already covered by another organization and for charging the institution $600 to move 40 pieces of donated outdoor furniture to her house that had been stored in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building.
The Smithsonian has been buffeted by scandal over the last year and a half. Its previous top executive, Lawrence A. Small, resigned in March 2007 after an investigation yielded revelations of lavish personal spending.
The Smithsonian, made up of 19 museums and other institutions, is under particular scrutiny because it receives 70 percent of its $1 billion budget from the federal government. After Mr. Small’s resignation, it cast a wide net for a new leader. Last month it announced that G. Wayne Clough, the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, would take over as secretary on July 1.
The inspector general’s report was heavily edited to conceal the names of individuals and groups from which Ms. O’Leary had received gifts or free tickets as well as people with whom she traveled — in some cases, friends.
It said that she regularly solicited tickets to social functions like concerts, fashion shows, and music awards, “sometimes asking for additional tickets for family and friends.”
In April 2007, having obtained free tickets to the Latin Billboard awards show (normal charge: $450 a person), Ms. O’Leary sent a message to the ticket source, saying, “Many thanks, [name redacted]! You are the best. One q: how d I get one extra ticket?”
Another message sent in relation to the event said: “Thanks again for everything, you are a [word redacted]! Do you know if the second ticket you gave me which is basically the after party invite with the silver sticker is better than the regular ticket?”
In April 2007, the report says, Ms. O’Leary allowed a for-profit company to pay for her hotel expenses without seeking approval. She also occasionally filed claims and received reimbursement for expenses that she did not actually incur given that she had received cash for some of her expenses from an outside source.
Dan Sheehy is the acting director of the Latino Center, which was founded in 1997 and has five staff members. It receives $1 million a year in federal money that is then distributed to various Latino-related programs.
On Monday, a Latino Center board member contacted The Times to express support for Ms. O’Leary. “Pilar did an excellent job as a director,” said the trustee, Thomas H. Castro, who said he had not seen the report. “She and the staff raised a lot of money and did a lot of innovative programming.”
