CRIME & LAW Ex-Chicago State Professor Accused of Embezzling $650K From Student Organization Matt Masterson | November 20, 2020 7:23 pm
A file photo of Chicago State University. (WTTW News) A file photo of Chicago State University. (WTTW News)
A former Chicago State University professor and interim dean is facing federal charges alleging she embezzled more than $650,000 from a student-based organization and used the funds for herself and her family.
Carmita Coleman, 49, was charged Friday in the Northern District of Illinois court with four counts of wire fraud following a five-year scheme from 2011 to 2016 in which she allegedly took $651,272 from a national student organization that works to improve minority representation in the pharmacy industry.
That group, the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA), filed a federal lawsuit against Coleman in 2017, detailing how Coleman allegedly carried out the fraud.
According to that suit, Coleman served as executive director of the association from 2006 to 2016, at which time she was replaced. But Coleman refused to exit or assist in the transition, according to the lawsuit.
This led to a lawsuit and Coleman was ordered to turn over control of all SNPhA accounts and records back to the organization and the new executive director. When she did, it was discovered that Coleman had allegedly “withdrawn over $541,032.58 in cash from SNPhA bank accounts without a legitimate basis and used the debit card for SNPhA to make $110,240.05 in unauthorized purchases.”
That suit claims Coleman used the money on, among other things, “clothing, food, and trips.”
Federal prosecutors allege Coleman attempted to conceal these transactions by submitting false and misleading reports.
In an indictment unsealed Friday, the feds claim Coleman also fraudulently solicited funds on the SNPhA’s behalf by presenting “false and misleading representations that the funds would be and were used to support (the organization’s) mission when Coleman intended to, and did, spend the funds for her and her family’s personal benefit, and not for the benefit of (SNPhA).”
Spokespersons for Chicago State University declined to comment on the case Friday, but noted that Coleman is no longer a university employee.
Each count of wire fraud carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Coleman’s arraignment has not yet been scheduled.
Note: This story has been updated to indicate in the headline that Coleman no longer works at the university.
Contact Matt Masterson: @ByMattMasterson | mmasterson@wttw.com | (773) 509-5431
chivic: My brother,if you follow the case well,you will not make this comment .Even Tinubu is talking about re-run because of the fact on ground,if not a Jagaban will not even mention it at all. But he is not even sure he will be a candidate on the ballot.When you take people to court ,you can hit them on different count .
Àpart from the result /figures of the election which was 80% of the case presented in the court .The Lawyers to the opposition parties also set booby traps for Tinubu. Which include 1) NYSC certificate 2) Dual nationality 3) drug forfeiture case 4) fraudulent Chicago certificate 5) Shetima double nomination 6) not scoring 25% of FCT
Apart from item 6,if they get favorable judgement in any of the 5,then Tinubu stands disqualified and 3 things could happened
1) Rerun featuring Atiku and Obi 2) Declaring Atiku winner 3) Declaring Obi winner if he succeeded to prove that he secured more vote than was recorded for him ( in about 16 states) top of which is the Benue, plateau and rivers .
Even at that Atiku and Obi can not be declared winner except the scored 25% in at least 2/3 of the states.However , nullifying Tinubu will automatically place all his vote to be zero vote and thus elevating the other candidates to have more 25% in other states that they did have from the result announced by INEC
Though,I think the tribunal might pass Tinubu.Its Supreme court that will likely make the judgement that opposition parties are looking for .
After all most 30 years dealing with rotten judiciary and legislative systems in Nigeria. . . . I am not hopeful. I just want to know what kind of 'technicality' they will use this time.
The gist now is to cancel the elections and start over due to breaches of electoral guidelines.
Former Chicago State University director accused of theft appears in court
Former Chicago State University director accused of theft appears in court Thursday, November 12, 2015
Former CSU director appears in court
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A former Chicago State University director is accused of hatching a plan to hire her mother in a ghost payroll scheme. Thursday, the accused appeared in court on numerous theft, official misconduct and fraud charges.
The amount missing from Chicago State University is relatively small, less than $10,000, but State's Attiorney Anita Alvarez called the alleged fraud "reprehensible."
"She was so brazen in the way this theft occurred that it is reprehensible," Alvarez said.
LeShondra Peebles, 43, a former administrator, is accused of hiring her mother, 65-year-old Shirley Kyles, who never showed up for work. Peebles also is alleged to have steered a consulting contract to a family friend.
"The University uncovered this and brought this to our attention last year," Alvarez said. "So they did a great job in performing an internal audit to find this."
Former CSU president Wayne Watson was sued by Peebles, who alleged Watson tried to make her file a sexual harassment allegation against a professor. Watson reported his suspicions about Peebles to the State's Attorney office.
Donna More is running against Alvarez in next year's Democratic primary. The former state and federal prosecutor suspects the incumbent's CSU announcement is political.
"This office, in my judgement, only does things when forced," More said. "So I'm glad that competition in the State's Attorney's race has led her to actually indict a public corruption case."
Alvarez disputed that charge, saying, "I have charged more political corruption cases than any of my predecessors since I took over."
Another Democratic primary challenger is former Assistant State's Attorney Kim Foxx. After releasing a campaign video this morning, she also said the two term incumbent is trying remake her image.
franchasofficia: Fear will never let you a famous Ronu and OPC terrorist to condemn your masters up North, so I am not surprised that you left Northern leaders to blame it on Chinese, wonders
tsdarkside: haha....even south africa has a american military base right in the center....
malema was completly pissed talkin about it....
Then they should have invited Ramphosa ke! Thank God for Malema. Why are they singling out ONLY TIEFNUBU to come over there? You don't find it suspisious? I nor blame you. Palliatives nefa reach ya mouth so ya brain go think straight! Na Agbado poverty dey catch you.
you dont understand whats going on.... does tinubu behave like somebody that likes them....??
Educate am abeg. . . Surprising he is the ONLY African leader. . .and they think it is an honor? THE LAST WESTERN PUPPET IN AFRICA to be used to destroy dey feel cool ni? Why e nor call Ramphosa of SA or El-Sisi of Egypt?
See country wey dey talk o? Even the ones wey nor dey inside incubator dey quench! Na 'sanctions' cause am? Nigeria na sick country gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.
2,300 under-5-year children die daily in Nigeria —Benue Health Commissioner
By Peter Duru, Makurdi Benue State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Prof. Joseph Ngbea, yesterday, disclosed that about 2,300 under five-year children and 145 women of childbearing age die daily in Nigeria of preventive diseases.
Ngbea, while flagging off the first round of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week, MNCHW, in Makurdi, lamented that “Nigeria has one of the highest death rates in the world among young children and women of childbearing age, and the trend is not improving satisfactorily.”
At least dem get incubators. . .How many babies are dying in NIgeria daily?
If they want to be truly independent, there must be collateral damages. Dem not get generator? They should be strong like QATAR. . .and work around the difficulties or the remain slaves for ever!
They should not BLINK! Pan-Africanism is a MUST. 500 years of western slavery is enough.
What ever energy they have should be channeled to hospitals mostly till alternative energy is established.
Afterall na only 70% Nigeria dey supply, make dem use the remaining 30% for emergencies only.
Burob: Only you Almijiri wailing last week say Tinubu’s palliative no reach you, today you & your fellow Jobless Obidients, have shifted to Aliko Dangote?
Na obidient be dis? At least I dey wail ON 3 + SQUARE MEALS DAILY!
NzogbuNzogbu: since the ilorin beating from isese which Yoruba Muslim dey gree agree he is ilorin again
Ask dem. . .not my consine! I have the right to criticize the so-called government of my state of origin while I criticize others. Not everyone engages in bigotry shyte like most of you. Please, find your level in the snake-pits of NL. Ciao!
Foreign reserves-stolen Gold-stolen Crude oil-stolen Subsidy- stolen Abacha loot-stolen Bank loans-stolen Palliatives IMF fund-stolen WHO ARE THE THIEVES?
jconsulting: See daft good for nothing obidients , so you think America is not super corrupt. Tinubu will come out clean as he has always, they dont call him Jagaban for nothing.
That is not the point. GO AND PROVE YOUR PRIMITIVE LEVEL OF CORRUPTION THERE. Simple! Everyday for the TIEFNUBU ke. . . will he reign in his CROOKED KINGDOM FOR EVER?
The rise and fall of JAGABANTIS. . . Where is CASTRO TODAY? Where is SADAM TODAY? Where is GADAFFI TODAY?
Tinubu and the certificate scandal that refuses to die
IF there is anything that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, would want to die down at this critical moment, it is the certificate scandal that has dogged his political career for more than two decades.
Though he survived the scandal when it first reared its ugly head in 1999 even as the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari, accused of the same scam, lost his plum office, it has refused to go away.
Tinubu survived the scandal then because the same gladiators who forced Buhari to resign on July 22, 1999, exactly 49 days after he clinched the coveted seat of the House of Representatives Speaker, turned around to save his neck from the political guillotine. And what was the case against Tinubu? Like Salisu Buhari who claimed to have attended University of Toronto in Canada and graduated with a degree in Business Administration, when he did not, shortly after he was sworn in as governor of Lagos State on May 29, 1999, there were allegations that Tinubu had perjured and forged the credentials that qualified him to run for the governorship election.
The allegations were contained in a petition dated August 12, 1999, written by Alhaji Jameed Seriki and Dr. Waliu Balogun-Smith. They alleged a discrepancy in Tinubu’s age since the profile published during his inauguration stated that he was born in 1952 and the age on his transcript at the Chicago State University claimed that he was born in 1954.
They also alleged that he did not attend Government College, Ibadan, as was stated in his profile and INEC FORM CF.001, and the University of Chicago as claimed in INEC FORM CF and an affidavit sworn to at the Ikeja High Court of Justice on December 29, 1998. Unlike Buhari who had no constitutional bulwark to shield him, by this time, Tinubu was already the governor and so enjoyed immunity, courtesy of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution.
The onus, therefore, fell on the Lagos State House of Assembly dominated by the Alliance for Democracy, AD, to investigate him and take punitive action if he was deemed to have committed acts constituting gross misconduct.
[b]Of course, that was not going to happen. So, despite the fact that following a motion moved by Tajudeen Jaiyeola Agoro, who represented Lagos Mainland Constituency, the then Speaker, Dr. Olorunimbe Mamora, on Tuesday, September 21, 1999, set up a five-man ad hoc committee comprising Babajide Omoworare (Chairman), Thomas Ayodele Fadeyi, Adeniyi Akinmade, Ibrahim Gbola Gbabijo and Saliu Olaitan Mustapha, to investigate the allegations, Tinubu survived the scare. [/b] But the questions were not answered. In 1999, he claimed to have attended Saint Paul Aroloya Children Home School, Ibadan between 1958 and 1964 and Government College, Ibadan between 1965 and 1969. The petitioners claimed that he did not. So, the question is simple.
Did he or did he not? And because the monster that was Tinubu’s certificate scandal was not exorcised, it has reared its ugly head once again 23 years after and it will not go away because the man in the eye of the storm has refused to clear the air. He believes that he will successfully ride the storm.
That may well be true. In any other country other than Nigeria, Tinubu would have voluntarily thrown in the towel like Salisu Buhari did in 1999 or be forced to do so. Tinubu submitted an affidavit to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, claiming his degree certificate was carted away by the Nigerian Army during a raid. But in doing so, he left the fields for primary and secondary school education blank, meaning he didn’t acquire those certificates even as he claimed to have obtained a degree in business and administration in 1979. Refusing to provide the information as required by law has further aroused public indignation.
While Tinubu is keeping mum on the matter, his surrogates are speaking up, but even in doing so, they have refused to address the real issue. On Tuesday, human rights activist, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, said Tinubu graduated from the University of Chicago in flying colours and was the overall best graduating student in accounting.
“Let me say here that in his working career, Tinubu has served as an accountant in various companies, including Arthur Andersen, Haskins and Sells, Deloitte and Douche, GTE Service Corporation, America’s largest communication and utility company and auditor and later treasurer at Mobil Oil Producing Unlimited,” Abayomi wrote on his Facebook wall. “He was once a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a NADECO chieftain and major financier alongside Pa Alfred Rewane and Governor, Lagos State,” the senior lawyer who has supported Tinubu’s presidential ambition to the hilt wrote.
The same day, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma, introduced a rather ludicrous slant to the whole saga when he blamed what he called the inefficiency of INEC’s server for the mess. “In 1999, Tinubu contested elections and became the governor of Lagos. In 2003, he contested election for a second term. He ran and won as a senator in the country. Were records keeping efficient, and INEC server functional, he wouldn’t need to do fresh submission (of documents),” Uzodimma said. Nigerians have been scratching their heads, trying to make meaning out of his harebrained submission.
In the 23 years since this scandal blew open, Tinubu has done everything humanly possible to squash it. Ironically, the only thing he has refused to do is the easiest: produce the certificates or provide proof that he attended those schools and shame his detractors. Like his political soul mate, President Muhammadu Buhari, who would rather hire dozens of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, to defend him in court than show Nigerians his WAEC certificate, Tinubu has wilfully refused to assuage the anxiety of Nigerians. If actually he attended primary and secondary school, the only reason he is not forthcoming on that is because there is something hidden in those documents that he does not want Nigerians to know about him.
Dr. Femi Aribisala, an educationist and newspaper columnist, said that much in a tweet this week where he said: “I wrote in 2014 that Tinubu’s affidavit that he attended Government College Ibadan, GCI, between 1965 and 1968 is false. I was in GCI from 1962-1968, and Tinubu was not there. Tinubu now tells INEC he did not go to primary or secondary school. This means he committed perjury.” That is the crux of the matter. The issue is not about how brilliant Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is. No one is doubting his genius. The crux of the matter is: do we know anything about this man who may well become president on May 29, 2023?
FLASHBACK: How Late Gani Fawehinmi Sued Tinubu For Lying Under Oath He Attended Government College Ibadan, University Of Chicago
June 27, 2022 Sahara Reporters, New York NEWS Tinubu had made the claim of loss of certificates in his filings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 1999 and 2003 when he ran for governor of Lagos State.
On October 7, 1999, the late human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) filed an order at the Federal High Court, Lagos to compel security operatives to investigate criminal allegations which he made against the then governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu had made the claim of loss of certificates in his filings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 1999 and 2003 when he ran for governor of Lagos State.
He however stated in 1999 that he attended St Paul Children’s Home School, Ibadan, from 1958 to 1964 and Government College, Ibadan (GCI) from1965 to 1968 before proceeding to Richard Daley College, Chicago, from 1969 to 1971 and the University of Chicago.
Fawehinmi in the court documents had filed an order of mandamus praying the court to compel security operatives to investigate the allegations against Tinubu who had earlier been cleared by the Lagos House of Assembly.
“AN ORDER OF MANDAMUS compelling the respondents whether, by themselves, their agents, servants, privies or otherwise however to investigate the applicant’s complaint of false statements on oath and false declarations made under oath by Mr Bola Tinubu as contained in the two documents, that is: Independent National Electoral Commission Form CF001 declared and verified under Oath by Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now Governor of Lagos State) before the Commissioner for Oaths at the High Court Registry, Ikeja on December 28, 1998,” the court document had read.
“And Affidavit entitled; Affidavit in respect of Lost Certificates sworn to by Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now Governor of Lagos State) before the Commissioner for Oath at the High Court Registry, Ikeja on December 29, 1998.”
The Federal High court in its judgement however ruled that Tinubu as then sitting governor could not be tried as he enjoyed immunity from prosecution. The Appeal Court also upheld the judgement of the lower court.
The late legal luminary then headed to the Supreme Court and the apex court ruled that though Tinubu enjoyed immunity from prosecution, he could be investigated by the police over the allegation and tried after his tenure.
However, 15 years after his tenure as the governor of Lagos state, the Nigeria Police Force has refused to charge him as ruled by the Supreme Court.
In 2013, one Dr. Dominic Adegbola filed an unsuccessful application seeking to reopen the suit.
The late Adegbola had sought an order compelling the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to commence an investigation into the alleged case of certificate forgery.
Dismissing the application, Justice Saliu Saidu held that, by Order 34, Rule 4 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, the applicant failed to satisfy the mandatory requirements of the law.
Justice Saidu also held that such an application should have been filed before the court within three months when the alleged fraudulent act was detected.
According to the judge, since the application was not brought within the stipulated time, as mandated by the rules of court, it was bound to “hit the rocks”.
Though Tinubu later presented a certificate indicating he attended Chicago State University but SaharaReporters learnt that had never been the issue in contention as raised by the late legal luminary, Fawehinmi.
The issue raised by the late lawyer was about what he (Tinubu) filled in the INEC form F001 he submitted to the electoral body as his academic qualifications in 1998 which included the claim that he attended the University of Chicago and not Chicago State University.
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois while on the other hand, Chicago State University is a predominantly Black, public university in Chicago, Illinois that is not highly regarded.
Also challenged was what he filled in the INEC form that he attended St. Paul’s School Aroloya, Lagos for his primary education, which does not exist; University of Chicago; Government College, Ibadan between 1965 and 1968, which the authorities and Old Boys Association of Government College, Ibadan debunked.
Politics › Re: Still On Chicago State University. . .A History Of Fraud. by KanwuliaExtra: 7:47pm On Aug 27, 2023
