A former administrator at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has been charged with using university money to buy 75 computers and then reselling them for his own profit, Ann Arbor.com reported. Donald Lewis Sims Jr., a former business administrator at the university’s Center for AfroAmerican and African Studies, resigned in March and was charged in June after a university audit uncovered financial discrepancies that allegedly occurred between January 2008 and February 2010. Mr. Sims is to appear before a judge today in Ann Arbor on the computer charge and an accusation that he made $14,000 in fraudulent purposes on a university credit card. His son and several others are also charged with stealing and reselling computers from Detroit Public Schools.
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2 Responses to Former Administrator at U. of Michigan Faces Fraud Charge
cu_alum - September 23, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Presumably he’s accused of making fraudulent purchases, not fraudulent purposes. Or did you mean to say he made purchases (perhaps not fraudulent on their own) for fraudulent purposes?
mahonj - September 23, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Clearly, the author of this piece is misspeaking. But what was intended? A fraud is an (intentional) deception. The crook engaged in fraud. But how? He made money by buying computers with university money and then selling them. I am guessing that he bought them for less (say, educational + large order discount), and sold them at a mark-up (but probably less than market price), paid back what he spent, and kept the difference. (So the difference between the two was $14,000, or a profit of about $186 on each re-sale). That seems to be what is going on, as opposed to simply buying computers with university money, and selling them for whatever he could get ($14,000 for 75 computers, or only about $186 per computer on resale), and not paying the university back anything. That would be theft, I take it, in addition to fraud. He would be stealing computers from the university,The fraud, in either case, was to buy the computers for University use, when they were not being bought for University use. That was the intentional deception.