A budget administrator in the chemistry department at New York University is accused of submitting $409,000 in fraudulent reimbursement requests over five years using receipts pilfered from a liquor store trash bin. John Runowicz faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted of grand larceny, the New York Daily News reports.
“He put them as requests for petty cash,” Robert Morgenthau. district attorney for Manhattan, told the newspaper. “Nobody would look to see that the receipts came from a liquor store.”
In the end a suspicious student worker brought the receipts to the attention of university officials, who reported him to Mr. Morgenthau’s office and fired him.
A musician on the side, Mr. Runowicz recorded a CD in 2007, “How Am I Here?” under the name John Michael Hersey. Among the tracks: “Things Are Not as Bad as They Seem” and “The Darkest Hour.” He pleaded not guilty to the charges. —Don Troop
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3 Responses to Embezzlement Blues
fcshofstra - January 4, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Isn’t it telling that a STUDENT reported the problem? I expect that some budgeting/accounting office report to flag unusual reimbursements. Am I’m too far down the heirarchy (or in the wrong department) to believe that $80K/year in petty cash receipts for a single individual is out of line?
samanthak - January 5, 2010 at 4:27 pm
The link for the NY Daily News report goes to the CD Universe page for the album.
factfiles - January 5, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Whoops. Thanks, samanthak. Fixed.