Kris Alingod – AHN News Contributor
Queens, NY, United States (AHN) – A former dean of St. John’s University was charged Wednesday with using $1 million worth of school funds to pay for her son’s tuition and other expenses such as groceries and Victoria’s Secret lingerie.
Cecilia Chang faces a 205-count indictment including first-degree grand larceny, 69 counts of second-degree forgery and 64 counts of first-degree falsification of business records.
The 57-year-old was the university’s vice president for international relations and dean of the Center of Asian Studies until her suspension and eventual removal this year. She is accused of having non-work related expenses reimbursed by the university over a six-year period, and funneling a $250,000 donation to the school from a Saudi Arabian foundation into a non-profit she created.
An alumni of St. John’s who received her doctorate from Columbia University, Chang faces as much as 25 years in prison. She has pleaded not guilty.
Chang’s official role included fundraising for the school, and she was often required to travel with dignitaries and take potential donors out for expensive meals or cater to their needs when they were visiting the United States. She would thus have her credit card charges regularly reimbursed, sometimes for as much as $50,000 a month.
A university audit last year, however, revealed that she had been submitting a credit card statement issued by a Taiwanese bank that had charges made by her son for groceries, gasoline, cable television, casino expenses, clothing and insurance.
Chang had several university-issued credit cards, according to prosecutors, but was allowed to use her personal credit card from Taishing Bank because she told school officials some places in Asia did not accept credit cards issued by U.S. banks.
Chang is also accused of using the Taishing Bank credit card to pay for her son’s tuition. She had the authority to award scholarships, and she gave her son a scholarship to the university’s law school. When she was told that her action was beyond her authority and that she had to pay for her son’s tuition, Chang allegedly used her personal credit card to cover the tuition and then submitted a false credit card statement so the expense could be reimbursed.
Prosecutors also charge that Chang misled a charity run by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom Foundation, into believing it was donating money to the university.
Chang had proposed the creation of a non-profit, Global Development, to the university but officials had rejected the idea. Despite the decision of the school, she created the non-profit and used the university’s letterhead and official e-mail account to communicate with the Kingdom Foundation about a donation.
Her letters to the Saudi Arabian charity included statements such as, “On behalf of St. John’s University, we would like to convey our deepest gratitude.” The money, worth $250,000, was donated to Global Development and later reportedly wired by Chang to China.
Chang “was highly respected by school officials for her ability to successfully secure large, sometimes million dollar, contributions,” District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. “It is disheartening, indeed, to see an alleged betrayal of this magnitude which inexcusably deprived the University of much needed educational funds and could have a chilling effect on the school’s future fund-raising efforts.”
However, Chang’s lawyer, Todd Greenberg, told the New York Daily News, “Every dime that this woman spent was spent on behalf of St. John’s University, entertaining the people who St. John’s University told her to entertain.”
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