U professors indicted in Georgia for double-dipping
Two high-profile University of Minnesota professors have been indicted in Georgia for conspiring to draw salaries from two schools at once.Francois Sainfort and his wife, Julie Jacko, face felony charges of conspiracy, theft and false statements. If convicted, Sainfort faces 14 counts, a fine of up to $1.04 million and up to 165 years in prison. Jacko faces 11 felony counts and slightly lesser penalties.
The husband-wife duo — who specialize in making sense of huge volumes of health data — first drew attention in 2008, when officials from the University of Minnesota and Georgia Tech questioned why they received paychecks from both.
The indictment charges them with lying about their dual employment and fraudulently billing Georgia Tech for travel expenses.
Attorneys for the professors said the pair are innocent and were open with both universities about their employment.
“I regret that Georgia Tech has chosen to elevate this matter to a criminal forum,” said Buddy Parker, attorney for Sainfort.
Robert Rubin, an attorney for Jacko, said: “Anybody who knows Dr. Jacko knows what a fine person she is. These charges are an anathema to who she is.”
Also charged for conspiracy is Robert Jacko, Julie Jacko’s brother. The indictment alleges that, in applying to be a consultant for the Georgia Tech Health Systems Institute, he failed to disclose that his brother-in-law ran the institute.
He allegedly used fake addresses to help hide that fact.
Two University of Minneapolis faculty got into a bit of trouble.
ReplyDeleteMinnipolis Star Tribune
By coincidence, two faculty members from Georgia Tech got caught doing the same thing.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Wait a minute, these are the same people! Kids, double dipping isn't just a way to spread germs at the guacamole bowl. It's also a felony.
And that's one to grow on.
If a person is able to work hard and handle two or three jobs, then why is it wrong?
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm missing something obvious here, but what exactly is the criminal behavior they are being charged with? How does one "conspire" to work two jobs? Were they given no-show jobs (and if so, by whom) or were they legitimately working for two employers?
ReplyDeleteThe only thing mentioned in the article that is obviously criminal is the alleged filing of false expense reports.
I agree with Bubba -- if you can do it, why not do it?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, if you are NOT doing it, and if you are are siphoning funds from fraud? Yeah. There's the door. Use it now.
(ps--by 'not doing it,' I mean failing to meet professional obligations in both jobs, aka 'slacking.')
ReplyDeleteI don't know why this seems so hard for people to understand. If they have a 50 or 75 percent research time job the can't divide up their days between two places and still be "doing" both jobs.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if its the way medical schools apportion their jobs versus the rest of us who don't get the big bucks.
The article doesn't say what, if any, time commitments were made for each job. That's why it's confusing. If such a concept is taken to be obvious in the context of medical research, then fine, but there are huge numbers of people in the world who manage to work more than one job without being charged with a felony.
ReplyDelete@Kenny: my contract with my state-university employer (which does *not* include research) specifies that, during the 9 months of the contract, I won't work more than a certain number of hours outside the university without clearing it with the university first. I know of a reasonable number of colleagues who regularly violate that part of the agreement (most of them by adjuncting somewhere else as well as being "full time" at my university), and I'm pretty sure that, were our department chairs to find out (if they don't already know), they wouldn't do anything, since the reason for taking on the extra work is almost always money, and any decent administrator is justifiably embarrassed at what they're paying us. But these are faculty members whose whole job is teaching, and who are somehow (I honestly don't know how) managing to do their jobs well despite an overload.
ReplyDeleteIf the same clause exists in U Minnesota and/or Georgia Tech contracts, and if taking money from a state institution in either state without adhering to all the conditions of a contract with the state is a felony in either of those states, then that, I suspect, is how you get to a felony charge. As others have pointed out, this would be especially true if one of the activities for which they are being paid is research, and they are listing the same publications, presentations, or other research activities on two sets of faculty activities reports.
I wonder how they listed their affiliation(s) on publications and conference programs? If they were, in fact, managing to do twice as much research as required by either institution, and never claiming credit for the same work in two places, I might be more sympathetic.
I also suspect that this will become a more common issue as the economy moves toward knowledge work and away from by-the-clock work. On the other hand, if we all end up being independent contractors rather than employees, then employers really won't have much to say about what else we do, as long as we get the work we've promised to them on time and to specifications.
Thanks for the explanation, Cass.
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