Former law school official indicted for theft, money laundering

Jason Shoumaker, a former facilities director at the UT law school, was indicted this week for theft, money laundering and abuse of official capacity.

Shoumaker was indicted by a Travis County grand jury after a year-long internal investigation that was later referred to the Travis County district attorney’s office, according to The Austin American-Statesman.

The indictments say he took more than $300,000 from UT without consent between January 2013 and August 2017, the Statesman first reported. Court documents do not specify an exact amount.

Shoumaker allegedly used procurement cards, which allow employees to charge UT for job-related expenses, contracts and invoices, to make fraudulent payments to himself and several others, including Northpoint Commercial and TC Consulting, according to the Statesman.

Shoumaker was arrested on Wednesday and released after posting bond, the Statesman reported. He faces five to 99 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each charge, if convicted.

In May, Shoumaker was arrested for six counts of tampering with government records, the Statesman reported. Authorities said he was collecting pay for work when he was actually in other places such as Cozumel and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

He was also accused of faking timesheets to try and get a larger employee separation payout after being fired, the Statesman reported.

UT spokesman Gary Susswein told the Statesman that UT is in the process of improving its spending procedures, including allocating more resources to monitoring procurement cards. The University is in the middle of reviewing Shoumaker’s entire work history at UT.

“The University of Texas takes its responsibility as a steward of public dollars extremely seriously and will continue to work closely with the district attorney as the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Shoumaker moves forward,” Susswein told the Statesman.

 

Read more here: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/12/22/former-law-school-official-indicted-for-theft-money-laundering
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