ST. LOUIS — A faculty member at the Washington University School of Medicine on Wednesday admitted embezzling about $412,000 from the school and used some of it to buy collectible trading cards, authorities said.
Dr. Gary Grajales-Reyes, who was an assistant professor of pathology and immunology, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to three counts of wire fraud, the U.S. attorney’s office here said in a news release.
The news release said Grajales-Reyes submitted false requisition requests to the medical school for computer equipment which falsely claimed it was for his research laboratory at the school. Involved were internal and external hard drives and graphics cards.
WashU Medicine then bought and paid for the requested equipment from a vendor, which shipped it directly to the lab. The news release said Grajales-Reyes then sold some of the equipment through his personal eBay site and some to an Amazon-based third-party seller.
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The money was used for his personal expenses unrelated to his work at WashU, the news release said, including the trading cards. Federal law enforcement officers seized a “substantial quantity†of the cards from the lab, the release said. The type of cards wasn’t disclosed in the news release.
Grajales-Reyes submitted 73 false requisition requests for approximately 761 different computer parts, the news release said.
Sentencing is set for Dec. 4. The U.S. attorney’s office said each count carries a potential penalty of as long as 20 years’ prison time, a fine of as much as $250,000 or both.
The case was investigated by the FBI with the cooperation and assistance of the university, the news release said.
A spokeswoman for the medical school said Wednesday night that Grajales-Reyes is no longer employed by the university.
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