Rio De Janeiro - XINHUA
An audit revealed that Brazil's Red Cross embezzled more than 11 million U.S. dollars of donation funds from 2010 to 2012, local media reported Friday.
The misdoing was committed during a previous administration of the organization, whose directorship was fully replaced in 2012 due to denouncements of embezzlement, according to daily Folha de Sao Paulo.
An audit company was then hired to make a full investigation, and two years later it found that not only there was embezzlement but the amount was very high, said the report.
The embezzled fund was donated by Brazilian citizens to help victims of the drought in Somalia, the tsunami in Japan, and a major natural disaster in Rio de Janeiro state that killed about 1,000 people, said the newspaper.
In response to the scandal, the Red Cross pledged to take all steps necessary to get back the embezzled money and return it to the right beneficiaries.
It said evidence of the embezzlement will be delivered to the authorities for them to take legal action.