St. John’s Official Accused of Expensing Son’s Law School Tuition
A St. John’s University fundraiser is accused of putting her son’s law school tuition on an expense account as part of a $1 million embezzlement scheme.
Cecilia Chang, 57, is accused of charging the law school tuition on a Taiwanese credit card and submitting false expense reports claiming it as a travel and entertainment expense, report the New York Post and the New York Daily News. She charged the tuition after the school rebuffed her attempt to give her son a scholarship, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors also claim Chang used the credit card to pay for personal expenses, including casino gambling, lingerie purchases at Victoria’s Secret, and her cable TV bill. She is also accused of pocketing a $250,000 donation from a Saudi prince, sending it to a foundation that she created while falsely claiming it was part of the school.
Chang’s lawyer, Todd Chang, denied the charges in an interview with the Daily News, saying every dime she spent was for entertainment expenses.
Chang earned between $130,000 and $140,000 a year as vice president for international relations and dean of the Institute for Asian Studies. She is being held on $1 million bond on charges of grand larceny, forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument, and falsifying business records, the Post says.
