Dive Brief:

• A former University of Louisville official has been indicted on charges of stealing $2.8 million and failing to report $2.4 million in income.
• Perry Chadwick Vaughn, former executive director of the university’s Department of Family & Geriatric Medicine, is accused of stealing patient payments and using the money to buy expensive clothes, fly his family on a Caribbean vacation, pay for real estate, buy a $9,000 necklace, and drive a fleet of luxury cars, including two Mercedes-Benzes, a Range Rover, a Corvette, and an Infiniti.
• The alleged scheme lasted for six years, but it wasn’t until October 2012 that a co-worker emailed university auditors with questions about how Vaughn could be funding his lifestyle on his $105,000 salary.

Dive Insight:

Apparently, $105,000 doesn’t buy what it used to. That this crime went undiscovered for six years, if the charges are true, is unfathomable. The seven-count indictment charges Vaughn with money laundering, theft, and bribery in programs that receive federal funds; mail fraud; and filing false federal income tax returns. If convicted, he faces up to 55 years in prison. The Courier-Journal reported that he was one of at least six university employees accused of stealing the school's money or grant funds under its control. The fate of the others is not clear.