The lead prosecutor in the felony criminal case against former Columbus Zoo and Aquarium CEO Tom Stalf says the former executive’s current employer, a major zoo sponsor and donor, has paid the $400,000 Stalf owed in restitution to the zoo.
Stalf, whom prosecutors consider the ringleader in the scandal spanning from 2011 to 2021, if only because he oversaw all zoo operations, currently works for Germain Honda of Dublin. He faces 36 of the 90 charges brought against four defendants in an indictment filed in September. He is scheduled for trial on Aug. 6.
“My client works for Germain and does an outstanding job for them,” said Mark Collins, Stalf’s attorney, who declined to discuss his client’s restitution arrangement.
In 2022, Rex Elliott, Stalf’s attorney at the time, said a $400,000 settlement with the zoo was “a high price to pay” and that zoo officials made his client a scapegoat for misspending about which he said they already knew.
“Mr. Stalf only agreed to settle this now and pay money he doesn’t owe out of concern for his family and to move forward with his life,” Elliott said at the time.
When the criminal indictment came in September, Stalf was a new car manager at the Germain dealership on Sawmill Road in Dublin. A smiling Stalf, in a blue vest and shirt, posed in a picture bearing the Honda logo last year.
The photograph has since been removed. An employee said that Stalf now works as a buyer for the company. The employee relayed a message from The Dispatch for an interview, which Stalf didn’t return.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Dan Kasaris, who leads the prosecution of the theft case, on Monday praised Tracy Murnane, the zoo’s former director of purchasing and the third former zoo official to plead guilty to felony charges. The others are former zoo marketing director Peter Fingerhut and former Chief Financial Officer Greg Bell, each of whom has agreed to cooperate in the zoo investigation.
Of the four defendants, only Stalf has not entered a plea or even appeared in court, according to court records.
Murnane “came up with $90,000 himself, unlike Tom Stalf,” an employee of Germain Motors, which has paid Stalf’s bills for him, Kasaris said.
Germain paid $400,000 on Stalf’s behalf, Kasaris said Monday after Murnane’s plea hearing. He declined to elaborate.
Following a forensic audit in 2021 by accounting firm Plante Moran, “it was determined that Stalf owed $400,000 — an amount that was paid by Germain Motors,” according to a spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
Bell’s attorney, Sam Shamansky, called Stalf’s ongoing relationship to the dealership following his indictment and its payment of Stalf’s legal expenses “beyond weird.”
Tom Schmid, current zoo CEO and Stalf’s successor, called Germain a longtime and major sponsor over the years. Sponsors pay the zoo in exchange for naming rights to events and other exposure.
“But their most recent sponsorship expired at the end of last year, and they decided not to renew it,” Schmid said.
Schmid referred other questions to a zoo spokesperson, who, after checking with zoo legal counsel said the zoo was “unable to comment or provide any further information due to the active nature of the criminal case.”
Neither Stalf nor officials of Germain Motor Co. returned calls this week from The Dispatch. In an email, Germain attorney Brad Koffel said the company “does not comment on matters pertaining to customers, partners or associates.”
Stalf’s trial is scheduled for Aug. 6 in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.
dnarciso@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Germain paid $400K in restitution for former Columbus Zoo CEO
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