University of New Hampshire employees indicted on theft charges
Accused of using grant money for personal benefit
Accused of using grant money for personal benefit
Two University of New Hampshire employees have been accused of stealing money from federal research grants.
Officials said Hailong Zhang, of Nottingham, and Jichun Zhang, of Durham, both used credit cards meant for expenses covered by federal research grants to buy personal items.
Officials said Hailong Zhang bought Amazon.com gift cards totaling over $82,000 to buy items for his personal use.
Jichun Zhang is accused of buying items totaling over $6,900 from Amazon.com, PayPal and Apple Inc.
Officials said both men submitted false receipts and justifications for the expenses.
Both men were arrested Friday.
A spokesperson for the university said in a statement:
"In December, the university discovered some irregularity in employee expense reimbursement claims by two university employees during a random audit of financial expenditures. Further inquiry suggested the possibility of misuse of federal grant funds by these two employees and the university immediately turned the information over to law enforcement and government officials.
"The two employees were arrested earlier today. The matter remains under criminal investigation and the university is cooperating fully with authorities. The university takes its fiduciary responsibilities very seriously and will continue to actively monitor expenditures of university. In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, the university cannot provide any additional information. Questions about the investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney's Office."