According to a news release on Wednesday, a state audit has shown that a University of Iowa employee embezzled almost $1 million from the school over a four-year period, utilizing university resources to benefit his personal business.
Following a special investigation by the Iowa State Auditor’s Office, which exposed a scam involving former Department of Physics and Astronomy Machine Shop Manager Brian Busch, the findings have been released.
The audit claims that Busch stole $943,634.97 from equipment used by university employees and jobs that they conducted for Xometry, a third-party corporation.
Busch sent the funds to his personal bank accounts and a Stripe account connected to his company, D3Signtech (D3T), rather than university accounts.
“Because University staff and equipment was used, the $934,634.97 received from Xometry should have been deposited to the University’s bank account,” according to the report.
Rob Sand, the state auditor, found in his report that Busch charged $136.38 in unauthorized payments to university accounts and made incorrect purchases totaling $6,313.39 using a university procurement card (Pcard).
Officials from the university began the investigation because they thought Busch might have broken the rules on conflicts of interest. The institution claimed that in order to determine the entire scope of the misconduct, it started an internal audit and asked the state to launch an investigation.
“When university officials learned of a potential violation in the Department of Physics and Astronomy Machine Shop, they took immediate action to protect the interests of taxpayers, students, and families,” the University of Iowa stated in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the statement, Busch was put on paid administrative leave on September 17, 2021, while the investigation continued. The last day of Busch was August 28, 2024.
On the same day, his coworker Spencer Kuhl was fired. According to the state audit, Kuhl “was responsible for invoicing all Protostudios billings.”
Based on “the working relationship between Mr. Busch and William Crile and discussions with University and Department staff and officials,” William Crile, another colleague, was also placed on paid administrative leave with effect from September 29, 2021, according to the state audit. As per the university’s statement, he departed from the institution on July 17, 2023.
According to the institution, it is currently looking into every option to get the money these people were paid while on leave.
The audit report was forthright about the internal shortcomings of the university.
It advocated for more stringent enforcement of conflict of interest regulations and put out a number of suggestions to seal the holes that let Busch run amok for years. Among these are independent evaluations of any modifications made to the work tracking systems and routine reconciliations of those systems.
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The Machine Shop’s protocols have already been changed, according to the university. According to the university, “The Machine Shop updated its job intake and tracking procedures, recording jobs as they are assigned, in-progress, completed, or deleted.”
The university further stated that it is examining the state audit’s recommendations and might take further action to stop future occurrences of this kind.
It stated that in an effort to reduce risks and safeguard resources, a more thorough evaluation of the university’s administrative leave and conflict of interest policies is currently in progress.
