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Two administrators convicted of stealing nearly $1M from Tufts U.

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 20, 2009 04:40 PM

By Marc Larocque, Globe Correspondent

Two former administrators for Tufts University have pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $1 million from the school and spending it on items such as gourmet steaks, high-end fashion, and foreign travel, Middlesex prosecutors said today.

Josephine Nealley, who was the director of the university’s Office of Student Activities from 1996 to 2007, stole $372,576 and faced three counts of larceny over $250. Raymond Rodriguez, who was the budget and fiscal coordinator for the Office of Student Activities from 2001 to 2007, stole $604,873 and faced two counts of larceny over $250.

"These two employees abused the access that they were given by the university to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars that was meant to help students," District Attorney Leone said today in a statement.

The two were convicted Friday in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn. Each was sentenced to two years in state prison followed by five years of probation, and ordered to pay full restitution.

Prosecutors said the two acted separately, even though they worked in the same office.

The stolen funds were first identified by a member of the Tufts internal audit department, who responded to an anonymous tip. An investigation ensued both by Tufts and the Middlesex District Attorney investigators. Nealley and Rodriguez were both indicted July 1, 2008.

The investigation determined that Nealley possessed control over bank accounts associated with the Office of Student Activities, and that she used one of these accounts to make personal purchases using the account's debit card, to transfer money to her personal account, and to withdraw cash, prosecutors said.

During her spree of bilking the university from 2001 to 2007, bank records showed that some of the money was spent at The Disney Store, Omaha Steaks, IKEA, as well as Foxwoods, prosescutors said. Tufts said she was not given permission to take or spend any of the money.

In Rodriguez's case, auditors discovered that he wrote himself a check for $100,000 from a university account. Rodriguez opened his own bank account with the check and used it to pay credit card bills from October 2005 to September 2007.

He also opened more credit cards in his name and in the name of the university, using them to purchase personal items, all along paying them with other checks from the student activity account.

During that period, prosecutors said, Rodriguez used Tufts money to purchase trips to Paris, Montreal, New York and Las Vegas, as well as tickets to see Madonna, Celine Dion, and the musical "Rent." He also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury items, including wallets, watches, shoes and handbags, from Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Prada, and Tiffany and Co.

Messages seeking comment left at the offices of Nealley's lawyer, Howard Lewis, and Rodriguez's lawyer, Steven Goldwyn, were not immediately returned.