A Shakopee accountant pleaded guilty Monday to a 2022 theft of $42,500 from a charter school focused on Hmong language and culture. He was sentenced to two years of probation.
Michael Pocrnich, 43, did not address the court directly during the sentencing hearing. His attorney, Andrew Birrell, said that Pocrnich had no prior record, had accepted responsibility for his actions, and paid restitution before criminal charges were filed. Birrell cited mental health issues as a partial explanation for his client’s actions. He also said that Pocrnich had already faced a host of consequences: he lost his CPA license and paid a $20,000 fine to the Minnesota Board of Accountancy; his accounting business fell apart; and he now holds a much lower-paying job.
“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” Birrell said of Pocrnich’s crime. “It’s almost like he wanted to get caught.”
He asked the court for a gross misdemeanor sentence, rather than a felony.
Kaitlyn Kulseth, an assistant Ramsey County attorney, described the theft as a “serious offense” and asked for a felony sentence.
“There is no excuse for taking advantage of charter schools,” she said.
Pocrnich and Birrell declined to speak with Sahan Journal after the sentencing.
Pocrnich founded the Anton Group, a St. Paul-based accounting firm, in 2013. It grew to represent one in five Minnesota charter schools, with annual revenue of $3 million in 2021. One of the firm’s largest clients was the Brooklyn Park charter school Noble Academy, which provides instruction in Hmong language and culture.
In February 2022, Pocrnich transferred $42,500 from Noble Academy’s bank account into an account that he controlled. Later that month, he attempted to transfer another $106,071 from Noble Academy to that account. That money was supposed to be sent to the school’s management company, Excellence in Education. Noble Academy’s bank flagged the transaction as potentially fraudulent, and the school voided the transfer.
That March, Pocrnich’s colleagues at the Anton Group noticed the unexplained transactions, reported him to the St. Paul Police Department, and suspended him without pay. No one else at the Anton Group was implicated in Pocrnich’s crime. Later that spring, Pocrnich paid back the money he had stolen from Noble Academy.
In May 2023, the Minnesota Board of Accountancy issued an order revoking Pocrnich’s CPA license. Then in October, following reporting from Sahan Journal, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged Pocrnich with one count of theft by swindle.
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The theft from Noble Academy rippled through Minnesota’s charter schools. In August 2022, Pocrnich’s former partners shut down the accounting firm he had founded. In its place, some of his former partners founded a new firm called EdFinMN.
While most of the charter schools that had previously worked with the Anton Group made a smooth transition to EdFinMN, not all of them did. JJ Legacy School in north Minneapolis chose not to continue working with the new firm. That school abruptly closed due to financial troubles this January; among other problems, it cited its lack of an accountant for much of the 2022-23 school year.
Reputational damage spreads to victims
During the hearing, Kulseth read a victim impact statement from Noble Academy, the Brooklyn Park charter school from which Pocrnich transferred the funds. The statement from Superintendent Mai Yia Chang said that Pocrnich had worked with the school since it opened in 2007, and that Noble Academy had developed “high trust” in him.
“Unfortunately, Noble was unaware that Mike would ever intend to steal from us,” Chang wrote. “In hindsight, there isn’t anything Noble could or should have done differently to protect itself from being the victim of a crime.”
Though Noble Academy discovered the crime relatively quickly and minimized its financial losses, she said, the school had also suffered reputational damage.
“We see in many instances that the victim of a crime gets blamed or shamed by people who wrongly suggest the victim could or should have done more to protect itself,” Chang’s statement read. “Some people now question our reputation simply because Noble was the victim of a crime.”
In closing, Chang wrote, “Mike’s crimes have affected everyone in our organization—every child, their families, and our staff.”
Scott Brown, one of the partners at EdFinMN who previously worked at the Anton Group, also submitted a victim impact statement. Brown was the colleague who reported Pocrnich to the police in March 2022.
“The breach of trust resulting from this betrayal has not only shaken the foundations of professional integrity but has also left a lasting mark on the entire workplace, his clients and the small and close-knit charter school industry,” Brown wrote.
Like Noble Academy’s superintendent, he described a specter of suspicion falling on his organization based on its founders’ past association with Pocrnich.
“The collaborative efforts that we have worked so hard to build are now overshadowed by the negative consequences of his fraud,” Brown wrote. “It has become increasingly challenging to rebuild our reputation and regain the trust of clients and stakeholders in the wake of these damaging revelations and the continued press articles.”
Ramsey County District Judge Kellie Charles sentenced Pocrnich to two years of probation. Under the conditions of Pocrnich’s probation, he will refrain from holding a position that requires him to handle money or act as a fiduciary for clients. He will not serve any jail time. If he successfully completes his probation, his felony conviction will be downgraded to a misdemeanor.
“This was a severe breach of trust which had far-reaching collateral consequences,” Charles said in the sentencing hearing.
Still, Charles said, she thought Pocrnich had shown remorse and had identified mental health issues at play. She told him she hoped that bringing this case to closure would alleviate stress for him and his family, and that he would get the help he needed.
“This is the first step in closing this chapter and moving forward,” Charles said.
