Ex-Whitworth trustee charged with theft

SEATTLE – Thomas Delanty, a former Whitworth College donor and board of trustees member who presented himself as a wealthy and well-connected corporate magnate, has been sued and charged with stealing from trust funds.

Delanty, 51, who was named to the board of the private Spokane college in 2001 after donating $225,000 and resigned in a falling-out in 2005, gave mostly bogus accounts of his background with such claims as having managed 38 companies and earning $60,000 a month, according to documents filed in King County Superior Court.

Contrary to what he said, Delanty did not have a Harvard graduate degree, manage a corporation with “nearly $1 billion in annual revenue,” work as a personal assistant to the wife of Nelson Rockefeller or receive an honor as Australian Businessman of the Year, investigators wrote.

“He was convincing,” said Nancy Huegli, 91, a longtime neighbor of Delanty’s wife, from whom he is accused of stealing more than $150,000 since 2000. “Of course, I believed him.”

Huegli, claiming losses from 2000 to 2005, contacted police and Delanty was charged in June with 29 counts of theft. He has pleaded innocent.

Other accusations against him in lawsuits have been outside the statute of limitation for criminal charges, but investigators are checking for other situations that could result in charges, Deputy Prosecutor Lynn S. Prunhuber said.

In lawsuits dating back 16 years, Delanty is accused of serving as trustee of at least four estates of people not related to him and transferring money from one estate to another, using the funds to finance loans to himself and other people, putting himself on real estate titles, charging money to take his name off the titles and complicating the deeds.

The latest lawsuit was filed Thursday in Superior Court on behalf of Michiko Vincent, who accused him of diverting her assets into clandestine accounts in his name or the names of his relatives since 1996.

Former colleagues on the Whitworth board said they hadn’t known of a felony conviction and were surprised to learn of the theft charges.

He was friends with other board members and with college Vice President Kristi Burns and her husband, who used the Delantys’ condominium in Hawaii and joined them at Seattle Mariners games and at dinner.

To others at the Presbyterian-affiliated school, Delanty sent Christmas cards with a photograph of his family visiting Thailand and wrote of a trip to see Tiger Woods play golf, difficulties with a $100,000 home remodeling project and the $1.2 million appraised value of his beach home in Seaside, Ore.

A fellow trustee, Shaun Cross, after learning of Delanty’s legal woes, nonetheless praised his business savvy, success and willingness to help raise funds.

Since October, according to the college’s Web site, the board of trustees has been requiring criminal background checks of all board members.

“The board wants to make sure that their members are going to represent the college well,” said Dolores Humiston, the school’s human relations director.

When Delanty arrived in the state in about 1984 and began preparing tax returns, he was still on probation for a federal mail fraud conviction in Oregon.

While working as a lumber trader, according to court records, he created documents with the name “Delanty Co.” and used them to sell lumber belonging to his employer to an out-of-state buyer. In 1983, he pleaded guilty to mail fraud and served 60 days of a one-year prison sentence.

His lawyer, Richard A. Hansen, agreed that as a felon Delanty could not legally serve as trustee of an estate but said Delanty didn’t know that when he moved north.

Delanty “has done a lot of philanthropic work for institutions and for individuals and, if anything, he’s gotten too involved in their lives,” Hansen said. “He was getting accolades for his work until now. Now everyone is trying to get money back from him.”

Delanty was released on $100,000 bail. In March, Hansen told a judge who froze Delanty’s bank accounts that his client was unable to pay legal fees and had trouble meeting his $12,000 a month in household expenses.

Since then, however, Huegli’s lawyers wrote that Delanty failed to disclose a bank account and wrote $700,000 in checks on that account. Although he said in court in August that he didn’t have money for groceries, checks subpoenaed by Huegli’s lawyers include $9,000 for gardening and $20,000 in home remodeling expenses.