Ex-NY college staffer pleads guilty in $409,000 scam involving scrounged wine shop receipts
By APMonday, May 17, 2010
Ex-NY college worker admits $409,000 receipts scam
NEW YORK — A former New York University staffer has admitted bilking the school out of $409,000 in reimbursements for bogus expenses he backed up with receipts fished from a liquor store’s garbage.
John Runowicz (RUN’-oh-wits) pleaded guilty Monday to grand larceny. The sometime doo-wop musician’s plea deal calls for one to three years in prison.
The now-fired Runowicz was an NYU chemistry department administrator. Prosecutors say he scrounged 13,000 receipts from a wine shop’s trash and passed them off as documentation for spending on lab supplies and university events.
Defense lawyer Daniel S. Parker says Runowicz was struggling with about $150,000 in graduate school loans and other debts.
The 48-year-old Runowicz has a doctorate in ethnomusicology from NYU. He has made solo CDs under the name John Michael Hersey.
