Harvard finishes ethics inquiry

Harvard University has finished its ethics investigation into renowned economics professor Andrei Shleifer , but officials will not say whether he has been penalized for his role in a scandal that cost Harvard $26.5 million.

In a prepared statement, Shleifer made it clear he will remain on the Harvard faculty, but neither he nor the university would comment on whether he will face any punishment for making personal investments in Russia while he was working on a federally funded Harvard project to revamp the Russian economy in the 1990s.

``I am delighted that this matter is fully behind me," Shleifer said in the statement. ``I look forward to following Dean [Jeremy] Knowles' advice and focusing my energies fully on scholarship, teaching, and service to economics and to Harvard."

A federal judge ruled in 2004 that Shleifer conspired to defraud the US government. Last year, Harvard agreed to pay the government $26.5 million to settle the case, and Shleifer agreed to pay $2 million. A former Harvard official will pay between $1 million and $2 million.

The Shleifer case was one factor fueling a flare-up in faculty anger against former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers last winter, leading to Summers's announcement in February that he would step down. Some professors were upset that Shleifer had apparently not been sanctioned by Harvard, and questioned whether his close friendship with Summers had influenced the university's handling of the matter. Summers said he had recused himself from the case.

A faculty ethics committee investigated Shleifer earlier this year. Its members then made a confidential report to Knowles, interim dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Knowles held the power to determine any penalties.

``It is the policy of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences not to comment on personnel matters," Knowles said in a statement. ``This case raised important issues, which have been thoroughly investigated according to the published procedures of the Faculty, and appropriate action has been taken."

Knowles added that he recently informed Shleifer of his decision in a letter. News that the inquiry had ended was first reported yesterday in the student newspaper, the Crimson.

Several professors said that punishments in such a case, if wrongdoing were found, might include a cut, or freeze, in salary or the removal of an honor, such as the named chair that is part of Shleifer's title. A spokesman for Harvard yesterday did not return several calls seeking information on Shleifer's current title.

Some professors oppose the fact that Knowles's decision is being kept secret .

In his recent book about Harvard, ``Excellence Without a Soul," computer science professor Harry R. Lewis pointed out that Harvard publicly chastised two star law professors who, in separate incidents, borrowed the words of others without attribution. Both of those professors, Laurence H. Tribe and Charles J. Ogletree Jr., said the mistakes were inadvertent.

``It seems to me that Harvard has some moral responsibility to acknowledge that what happened on its watch, by people it put in charge of this project, was wrong," Lewis said yesterday.

Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.