Dive Brief:
- In 2010, Georgia law enforcement raided the offices of Georgia Tech professor Joy Laskar, who was arrested on state racketeering charges and eventually fired.
- The university accused Laskar, a technology entrepreneur, of misusing university resources, but three years later, Laskar has not been indicted and the state says the investigation is ongoing.
- School officials say Laskar misled them about the extent of his involvement in a start-up and allowed start-up employees to use school lab facilities without permission; Laskar denies it.
Dive Insight:
The whole situation is a case study in the tension between academia and the start-up culture that some professors — particularly in the sciences — manage to bridge. Mixing academic and entrepreneurial roles can enrich both the school and the start-up, but can easily lead to conflicts of interest. For his part, Laskar is suing the school's president and board of regents over his dismissal. The school has already settled an earlier lawsuit with Laskar for just over $250,000.
