(He should have applied for a job at the business school reporting to Glenn Hubbard, the dean and a master thief himself.)
NY Times November 29, 2010 Man Is Held in Larceny; Columbia Lost Millions By JOHN ELIGON A Bronx man was indicted Monday on charges that he stole $5 million from Columbia University. The man, George Castro, was the beneficiary of an unauthorized bank account into which millions of dollars from the university were transferred in October and November, according to a criminal court complaint in Manhattan. Mr. Castro, 48, was charged with first-degree grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. When investigators went to Mr. Castro’s home on Wednesday to arrest him, they found him with a bag containing $200,000 in cash, the complaint said. They also seized a car, an Audi worth more than $80,000, according to the complaint. “The money just appeared in my account,” Mr. Castro told the authorities at the time, according to the complaint. “I got greedy. I bought the car with money from the account and made other purchases.” Mr. Castro was held in $2 million bail. His lawyer, David Fisher, declined to comment other than to say he believed that his client would be exonerated. Columbia referred the case to the Manhattan district attorney’s office early last week after it was discovered that an unauthorized TD Bank account was added on Oct. 4 to an existing university account. The new account was in the name of IT Security Solutions LLC, according to the complaint, and Mr. Castro had signing authority. The account received more than $3.4 million from Columbia accounts in October, the complaint said, and more than $1 million in November. The money transferred into the account was withdrawn for cash, used for purchases or transferred to accounts at other banks, including Capital One, the complaint said. Prosecutors were still trying to determine how the TD Bank account had been created and linked to the university’s account. A university spokesman declined to comment. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
