UCD worker accused of theft
Sacramento Bee 3/16/07
The woman, Beverly Benford, 65, of Sacramento, is suspected of a six-year spree of submitting fake travel expenses and buying consumer electronics for herself, for her children, and to sell online, according to court documents.
The losses could total about $160,000, said U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott.
In addition, UC Davis officials said they continue to investigate financial dealings in the program Benford worked on, amid allegations that a campus department may have benefited improperly from large amounts of federal funds she handled.
"We probably have a couple more months of work ahead" to examine what happened and whether university policies need changing, said Lisa Lapin, assistant vice chancellor for university communications.
"If it is found that funds were erroneously used ... we would absolutely restore those funds," she said.
At stake is federal money earmarked for teaching people eligible for food stamps how to handle food safely and shop wisely for the most nutritious diet.
Called the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program, or FSNEP, it's overseen by UC Davis in 41 California counties, with an annual budget that's recently hovered between $13 million and $14 million. The money comes equally from the federal government and from university contributions of staffing or other resources.
The program hires and trains more than 150 people who then give classes in low-income communities, said Amy Block Joy, its director at UC Davis.
A campus police document prepared early in the investigation and obtained by The Bee said Benford had the power to generate purchase orders for the program, approve them, buy items, take them into her possession and be reimbursed with program funds.
Such broad authority would be "unusual," Lapin said.
Benford told The Bee last week that she could not comment on any specifics before consulting with a lawyer, but that in general, all expenditures made by the program were approved by its director, Block Joy.
Yet it was Block Joy who filed a "whistle-blower" complaint with the university asking that funding irregularities be investigated, according to the preliminary document, which was given to The Bee by a law enforcement source in Yolo County.
The campus police officer who prepared the document, who is not identified by name, wrote that Block Joy told him she used the whistle-blower system because "she felt her concerns with Benford's theft of grant funds would go unaddressed."
Benford, who had risen to the level of Analyst IV, coordinated purchases for the participating counties, the preliminary document said. Benford would order items to be shipped to Davis' nutrition department, then "in theory" send them on to the proper county, as a way of keeping an accurate inventory of what was purchased, the document said.
Eventually, according to a subsequent affidavit for a search warrant filed in federal court, Benford bought iPods, DVD players, computers, expensive TVs, cameras and PDAs. Most of that would not have been allowed under the program, the affidavit said.
The earlier campus police document said Block Joy first became concerned with Benford's activities in September 2005, when Benford canceled a trip after being paid a $1,000 travel advance.
As Block Joy began examining records, more irregularities emerged, it said, including a camcorder and a home stereo system, bought with program funds, that Benford acknowledged were at her home.
Block Joy confronted Benford in the presence of Nutrition Department chairman Carl Keen over the camcorder in March 2006, the campus police document said.
Benford eventually wrote a letter of apology and a check to pay for the camcorder, but as more trouble was found in records, Block Joy became frustrated by the lack of official response, the document said.
At one point, it said, Block Joy theorized to campus police that Benford was being shielded by higher-ups because she helped others obtain equipment improperly for campus operations.
The officer wrote that that theory seemed to be consistent with a spreadsheet detailing nine years of program equipment purchases, which showed that of the $1.24 million spent on equipment over that time, UC Davis received $798,826 worth of items.
Leslyn Kraus, associate director of UC Davis' Internal Audit Services, "advised me there was a potential that some of the merchandise purchased by Benford, such as computers and other electronic equipment, is actually being used in the UC Davis nutrition department but not under the FSNEP program," the officer wrote. "This too would be a misappropriation of grant funds."
Keen, who heads UC Davis' nutrition department, said he couldn't comment on any allegations because he has been advised by campus officials that "it's just not appropriate" to talk to the press during an ongoing probe. Block Joy also refused to discuss the allegations.
The alleged misuse of funds was outlined in a document drawn up by campus police to prepare to ask a judge for permission to search the employee's office cubicle and home.
That document was never filed, and an affidavit for search warrant, prepared in October by Colleen Hackney, a special agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General, makes no mention of who else may or may not have gotten the food stamp funds.
In asking for permission to search Benford's home, Hackney's affidavit focused only on Benford, outlining her purchase records, e-mails with her daughters on campus computers, travel expenses and work records.
The e-mails discussed equipment features and Craigslist ads, leading investigators to conclude Benford was giving some items away and selling others.
Benford, who is scheduled to be arraigned on April 5 in federal court, worked for UC Davis from April 1991 until Nov. 1, 2006, according to university records. She retired with a lump-sum pension "cash out" of $268,688.
The university cannot withhold or delay a pension payment to anyone under investigation for stealing government funds, because employees have a right to the pensions that they've earned, said Dennis Shimek, UC Davis' senior associate vice chancellor for human resources.