6 ms·

Yale University IT admin spent $40M college money on luxury cars, houses

98 points by samspenc 5y ago

gfs 5y ago
Unreal. How is she out on bond? There are so many loose ends here too. I wouldn’t be surprised if others were involved.
- Grazester 5y ago
  Non violent crime and they don't think she is a flight risk?
  - mypalmike 5y ago
    You are probably right. But I wonder how she could not be considered a flight risk. Her recent history includes a decade of a massive, deceptive (using a shell company, etc.), and brazen theft. And she's up for a possible 30 year sentence. Who is a flight risk if not someone like that?
    - true_religion 5y ago
      I don't think you're allowed to use unproved allegations and the fear of a possible conviction as part of the calculation of a flight risk. After all, they are innocent until proven guilty. Mostly, the court should look at family, employment, track record of appearing in court, financial status. The only thing that would mark her as a flight risk is finances as she is wealthy enough to run away. However, if she does run she'll loose free access to the majority of her fortune which makes her less likely to run.
      - ahtihn 5y ago
        > I don't think you're allowed to use unproved allegations and the fear of a possible conviction as part of the calculation of a flight risk. How would anyone be a flight risk if you exclude these factors. Fear of a possible conviction is pretty much the only reason why anyone would give up their current life to flee.
      - mypalmike 5y ago
        Isn't the allegation considered proven in that she pled guilty?
        true_religion 5y ago
        That's true... I hadn't read the article before I commented. :)
  - pyuser583 5y ago
    Not to mention no criminal history and strong ties to the community. Plus family that would be hurt if she broke bond.
propter_hoc 5y ago
This is actually kind of tricky to catch. You have to have authorization limits not just per transaction, but also total per period of time. Still, I admire this person's commitment to grift. Eight years she devoted to this fraudulent side hustle!
- wmf 5y ago
  Or audits.
- CPLX 5y ago
  Or, a budget.
- icedchai 5y ago
  You'd think someone higher up would've noticed an anomalous increase in total transactions. Maybe she was smart enough to ramp up over time. Maybe a few million a year is really just a drop in the bucket.
- whoknew1122 5y ago
  Common security practices would help. Stuff such as... 1.) Separation of duties. A single person shouldn't be ordering and paying for $40 million worth of equipment. And a person shouldn't be able to order $2.1 million worth of computers within two-and-a-half months without someone noticing. 2.) Trend analysis for invoices. If there are multiple $10k purchases within a short period of time, someone should start asking why purchases are broken up into separate chunks. This is regularly done within financial institutions, and there's probably a former banking compliance officer or two at Yale who can advise the institution on creating build this very obvious system. 3.) Mandatory vacations. It's much harder to perpetrate fraud when someone else does your job for a week or two each year. 4.) Asset inventories. How does millions of dollars of equipment go missing without anyone noticing? A red flag or two should also pop up when a school administrator starts driving multiple luxury cars to work.
  - pxmpxm 5y ago
    Mandatory vacations especially, since most of these things are done by people in controller and similar corp finance rules. It's rather strange that an IT person could keep it going for so long - you'd think someone in the aforementioned roles would catch it way sooner?
taxyz23 5y ago
When someone can get away with this for 8 years and no one notices you know college tuition is too high...
willcipriano 5y ago
With all the administration bloat that has been going on you'd think they could catch this much earlier. Asleep at the wheel.
- zivkovicp 5y ago
  I would be surprised if she was doing it alone, it's likely others are involved and were paid to turn a blind eye.
paxys 5y ago
There are colleges all over the world that will treat a donation of a dozen used computers with reverence. Meanwhile an admin at Yale was able to make $40M worth of fraudulent purchases for IT equipment at a single department and no one noticed for 8 years. If you are looking for a single example to encapsulate America's broken higher education system, this is it.
- dimitrios1 5y ago
  Yale is an elite, private institution, with a 40+ billion endowment. 40m is pocket change, relatively speaking. Most ivy league schools, have hardly anything to do with the problem of America's broken higher education in general. These elite schools have decades, and in some cases centuries, old legacy wealth. Being elite means they are highly selective, and if you are from someone with low or middle income that does indeed get selected to go there, chances are you are getting financial assistance from the endowment fund. If this happened at a public institution, especially one part of a state system, it would be a much bigger scandal. While this is indeed scandalous, this is like crying over some rich people's pocket change, and not something that can be used as ammo against American universities on the aggregate. Again I am agreeing with your premise, American higher education on the whole is rife with waste, schemes, and scandals, but at least Yale and Harvard aren't vacuuming Stafford loans like Cal, Suny, or UOP.
  - HstryrsrBttn 5y ago
    I know no intuition that wouldn't notice a lack of over 8000 tablets in inventory. Where I work everything not written off will be checked bi-yearly. By an independent department. Something is fishy.
    - markstos 5y ago
      Sounds like the story was that the tablets were given to external participants in studies without the expectation of being returned.
      - 5y ago
brohoolio 5y ago
Talk about a lack of financial controls. One benefit of being a public institution is your books are sort of open, someone would notice this. You can’t just add $5 million a year to your budget.
Proven 5y ago
hawflakes 5y ago
Doesn't seem like she was an "IT admin." According to the article she was, "director of finance for its emergency medicine department"
indigodaddy 5y ago
The IRS wants a cut of the fraudulent income? What?? Feels pretty disingenuous to me..
Ansil849 5y ago
Why is the title on HN "spent $40M", but the title of the article is "stole $40M"?
- tromp 5y ago
  The spent the $40M mostly to buy tablets for the medicine dept, but then sold them and pocketed the money.
4gotunameagain 5y ago
> Until then, she is free on a $1 million bond. The fact that you can buy your freedom in the US is laughable
- Tarsul 5y ago
  especially when it's possible (or probable) that it's paid by your stolen money.
uptime 5y ago
The headline makes it sound like this was corrupt sanctioned spending by a dept rather than theft from the dept. Don’t send those resumes before you read the article!

98 points by samspenc 5y ago

gfs 5y ago

Unreal. How is she out on bond? There are so many loose ends here too. I wouldn’t be surprised if others were involved.

Grazester 5y ago
Non violent crime and they don't think she is a flight risk?
- mypalmike 5y ago
  You are probably right. But I wonder how she could not be considered a flight risk. Her recent history includes a decade of a massive, deceptive (using a shell company, etc.), and brazen theft. And she's up for a possible 30 year sentence. Who is a flight risk if not someone like that?
  - true_religion 5y ago
    I don't think you're allowed to use unproved allegations and the fear of a possible conviction as part of the calculation of a flight risk. After all, they are innocent until proven guilty. Mostly, the court should look at family, employment, track record of appearing in court, financial status. The only thing that would mark her as a flight risk is finances as she is wealthy enough to run away. However, if she does run she'll loose free access to the majority of her fortune which makes her less likely to run.
    - ahtihn 5y ago
      > I don't think you're allowed to use unproved allegations and the fear of a possible conviction as part of the calculation of a flight risk. How would anyone be a flight risk if you exclude these factors. Fear of a possible conviction is pretty much the only reason why anyone would give up their current life to flee.
    - mypalmike 5y ago
      Isn't the allegation considered proven in that she pled guilty?
      - true_religion 5y ago
        That's true... I hadn't read the article before I commented. :)
- pyuser583 5y ago
  Not to mention no criminal history and strong ties to the community. Plus family that would be hurt if she broke bond.

propter_hoc 5y ago

This is actually kind of tricky to catch. You have to have authorization limits not just per transaction, but also total per period of time. Still, I admire this person's commitment to grift. Eight years she devoted to this fraudulent side hustle!

wmf 5y ago
Or audits.
CPLX 5y ago
Or, a budget.
icedchai 5y ago
You'd think someone higher up would've noticed an anomalous increase in total transactions. Maybe she was smart enough to ramp up over time. Maybe a few million a year is really just a drop in the bucket.
whoknew1122 5y ago
Common security practices would help. Stuff such as... 1.) Separation of duties. A single person shouldn't be ordering and paying for $40 million worth of equipment. And a person shouldn't be able to order $2.1 million worth of computers within two-and-a-half months without someone noticing. 2.) Trend analysis for invoices. If there are multiple $10k purchases within a short period of time, someone should start asking why purchases are broken up into separate chunks. This is regularly done within financial institutions, and there's probably a former banking compliance officer or two at Yale who can advise the institution on creating build this very obvious system. 3.) Mandatory vacations. It's much harder to perpetrate fraud when someone else does your job for a week or two each year. 4.) Asset inventories. How does millions of dollars of equipment go missing without anyone noticing? A red flag or two should also pop up when a school administrator starts driving multiple luxury cars to work.
- pxmpxm 5y ago
  Mandatory vacations especially, since most of these things are done by people in controller and similar corp finance rules. It's rather strange that an IT person could keep it going for so long - you'd think someone in the aforementioned roles would catch it way sooner?

taxyz23 5y ago

When someone can get away with this for 8 years and no one notices you know college tuition is too high...

willcipriano 5y ago

With all the administration bloat that has been going on you'd think they could catch this much earlier. Asleep at the wheel.

zivkovicp 5y ago
I would be surprised if she was doing it alone, it's likely others are involved and were paid to turn a blind eye.

paxys 5y ago

There are colleges all over the world that will treat a donation of a dozen used computers with reverence. Meanwhile an admin at Yale was able to make $40M worth of fraudulent purchases for IT equipment at a single department and no one noticed for 8 years. If you are looking for a single example to encapsulate America's broken higher education system, this is it.

dimitrios1 5y ago
Yale is an elite, private institution, with a 40+ billion endowment. 40m is pocket change, relatively speaking. Most ivy league schools, have hardly anything to do with the problem of America's broken higher education in general. These elite schools have decades, and in some cases centuries, old legacy wealth. Being elite means they are highly selective, and if you are from someone with low or middle income that does indeed get selected to go there, chances are you are getting financial assistance from the endowment fund. If this happened at a public institution, especially one part of a state system, it would be a much bigger scandal. While this is indeed scandalous, this is like crying over some rich people's pocket change, and not something that can be used as ammo against American universities on the aggregate. Again I am agreeing with your premise, American higher education on the whole is rife with waste, schemes, and scandals, but at least Yale and Harvard aren't vacuuming Stafford loans like Cal, Suny, or UOP.
- HstryrsrBttn 5y ago
  I know no intuition that wouldn't notice a lack of over 8000 tablets in inventory. Where I work everything not written off will be checked bi-yearly. By an independent department. Something is fishy.
  - markstos 5y ago
    Sounds like the story was that the tablets were given to external participants in studies without the expectation of being returned.
    - 5y ago

brohoolio 5y ago

Talk about a lack of financial controls. One benefit of being a public institution is your books are sort of open, someone would notice this. You can’t just add $5 million a year to your budget.

Proven 5y ago

hawflakes 5y ago

Doesn't seem like she was an "IT admin." According to the article she was, "director of finance for its emergency medicine department"

indigodaddy 5y ago

The IRS wants a cut of the fraudulent income? What?? Feels pretty disingenuous to me..

Ansil849 5y ago

Why is the title on HN "spent $40M", but the title of the article is "stole $40M"?

tromp 5y ago
The spent the $40M mostly to buy tablets for the medicine dept, but then sold them and pocketed the money.

4gotunameagain 5y ago

> Until then, she is free on a $1 million bond. The fact that you can buy your freedom in the US is laughable

Tarsul 5y ago
especially when it's possible (or probable) that it's paid by your stolen money.

uptime 5y ago

The headline makes it sound like this was corrupt sanctioned spending by a dept rather than theft from the dept. Don’t send those resumes before you read the article!