Guilty-- that's how a former Missouri state university employee pleaded Tuesday to charges of stealing more than a million dollar dollars from the school.
The US attorney's office says 48-year-old Mark Brixey Embezzled for nearly ten years. Tuesday the public learned when his scheme started, how it worked, and how much money he took every year.
Back in August MSU officials said Brixeym the former bookstore director, had stolen at least $400,000. Tuesday we learned it was a whole lot more.
Wire fraud, money laundering, filing a false tax report-- the US attorney's office, the secret service, and local law enforcement say Brixey did all three.
"He repeatedly abused his position and exploited the weaknesses of the university's accounting system," explained Tammy Dickinson, the US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri during a news conference.
It began, according to Dickinson, in 2003 with nearly $29,000 stolen. The dollar amount grew every year, peaking at over $194,000 in 2010 before Brixey resigned last August.
He got the money from checks that were written by textbook companies that participate in the university's book buy-back program. The checks were made out to MSU so Brixey went to a different department to cash them. He said he needed the money to give to students who were trying to sell their textbooks. In 2011 one of those book companies started paying Brixey in cash.
The US attorney's office says 48-year-old Mark Brixey Embezzled for nearly ten years. Tuesday the public learned when his scheme started, how it worked, and how much money he took every year.
Back in August MSU officials said Brixeym the former bookstore director, had stolen at least $400,000. Tuesday we learned it was a whole lot more.
Wire fraud, money laundering, filing a false tax report-- the US attorney's office, the secret service, and local law enforcement say Brixey did all three.
"He repeatedly abused his position and exploited the weaknesses of the university's accounting system," explained Tammy Dickinson, the US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri during a news conference.
It began, according to Dickinson, in 2003 with nearly $29,000 stolen. The dollar amount grew every year, peaking at over $194,000 in 2010 before Brixey resigned last August.
He got the money from checks that were written by textbook companies that participate in the university's book buy-back program. The checks were made out to MSU so Brixey went to a different department to cash them. He said he needed the money to give to students who were trying to sell their textbooks. In 2011 one of those book companies started paying Brixey in cash.
Suspicious? Officials wouldn't say.
"We're just here today to talk about the university as a victim," one of the assistant attorneys told reporters.
The ordeal has been tough for new university President Clif Smart.
"When we learned of that theft it was probably the saddest day I've had since I took this position," Smart remembered, and a rude awakening as well.
"The goal is to make sure there is no place on campus where we receive cash that is unsupervised."
He's spent the year reviewing policies campus-wide making major changes to the bookstore specifically.
"Those actions range from better segregating duties of the people in the bookstore, new policies to eliminating exceptions, policies at the bursar's office, policies regarding transactions, to better oversight by the department of financial services," Smart listed.
All to ensure wire fraud, money laundering, and filing a false tax report are charges never again connected to MSU.
Brixey is out on bond but faces a 43 year prison sentence. His attorney did not return our call Tuesday.
There is another sensitive issue at play here. Mark Brixey's wife is a university employee in the admissions office. As of right now that's not changing. But Smart tells us in light of Brixey's guilty plea the university will have to decide what- if anything- she knew about the embezzling.
The university has a million dollar insurance policy to protect against employee theft. Additionally, law enforcement recovered $144,000 of what Brixey stole. So Smart is confident the university will recoop almost all of its money.
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