This may be the story to top all trifling financial aid stories.
After a blind item was posted to the blogging site Medium, about embezzlement of student’s financial aid at Howard University, six university officials were fired for what the university deemed “misappropriation of financial funds”. The incidents are said to have taken place between 2013 and 2017. The identities of the six individuals fired were not released due to employee confidentiality.
It didn’t take long before more truth came to light as a HU student, Tyrone Hankerson Jr, who worked in the financial aid office was found to have embezzled almost half a million dollars in funds.
A whistleblower, whose named was changed to “Chase”, found several inconsistencies in the school’s financial records. Those inconsistencies appear to point to unusually large grants and stipends that were given to two employees, Associate Director of Financial Aid, Brian Johnson and Hankerson, a student employee, under suspicious circumstances. The men are said to have received nearly $200,000 and $429,612 respectively.
Mess, mess all around. It is unclear what could happen to school president Wayne Frederick who came under fire earlier this year when comments he made regarding a student’s “tone” in voicing her displeasure with housing at HU went viral.
More on this as it develops.
