Courier-Journal: U of L grant checks end up in local bank
Three checks totaling $450,000 — money that former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner said was intended to pay for research — instead ended up being deposited in a Louisville bank, records show.
The records, which The Courier-Journal obtained in an open-records request, don’t identify who deposited or endorsed the checks. But Felner’s lawyer, Scott C. Cox, said his client is cooperating with federal investigators in “locating and reimbursing any funds that could be in question.”
Cox declined to say how much Felner is paying back. He has said that Felner is the focus of a federal investigation into the possible misappropriation of federal grant money that he controlled.
The records show that BB&T posted a check made out to “Natl Ctr on Public Education Prevention” for $200,000 on April 10, 2007, that had an endorsement stamp saying “credited to the account of the within named payee in accordance with the payee’s instructions.”
A second check for $50,000 on July 31, 2007, was endorsed with a stamp from the “National Center on Public Education and Prevention Inc.,” or NCPE.
A third check for $200,000 on Jan. 4 of this year had a hand-written endorsement of “NCPE. Deposit only.”
Wes Beckner, the regional president for BB&T, said the bank is cooperating with the federal investigation.
“We are giving them what they need,” he said, declining to elaborate.
The records show that U of L issued three checks totaling $450,000 to the National Center for Public Education and Prevention Inc. in Illinois, whose president is Thomas Schroeder, Felner’s colleague and friend.
Schroeder’s lawyer, Herbert Schultz, said that at Felner’s request, Schroeder returned to Felner the only two checks he was sent, which totaled $250,000. Schroeder previously said he didn’t know about a third check for $200,000.
But university officials said none of the money was ever returned to U of L.
U.S. Attorney David Huber declined to comment on the checks or whether Felner is making reimbursements.
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