You already know about the plagiarist president of Southern Illinois University presiding over revisions to the university plagiarism policy.

Now the University of Minnesota has put in charge of a task force on conflict of interest policies a flagrant conflict of interest offender.

As a fellow member of the task force puts it, “”[H]e knows what a conflict looks like.”

He sure does. He’s been there. It’s like that guy… Leonardo DiCaprio played him in the film… Frank Abagnale… Catch Me If You Can…

You want an inside guy for this kind of thing… A guy who knows what a conflict looks like because he has so done one…

From the Star Tribune:

A professor who is leading the University of Minnesota Medical School’s effort to write tougher ethics rules was himself disciplined in 2004 for secretly steering a $501,000 research grant to his own company, according to university investigative reports obtained by the Star Tribune.

Dr. Leo Furcht, the chairman of lab medicine and pathology, was reprimanded for a “serious violation” of university conflict-of-interest policies in connection with a grant from Baxter Healthcare for stem cell research at the Medical School, according to the investigation, which the newspaper received through the state’s public records law.

As a result, Medical School Dean Deborah Powell banned Furcht in May 2004 from any business-sponsored research for three years.

In 2007, Powell named Furcht to co-chair a task force to reform the Medical School’s conflict-of-interest policy.

… [Powell] did not inform the rest of the task force members about the sanctions against Furcht.

… In the late 1990s, a colleague, Dr. Catherine Verfaillie, had made a breakthrough in stem-cell research. When the university declined to patent it, Furcht created his own company, MCL, and filed for the patent along with Verfaillie and another researcher.

In July 2000, Furcht lined up a research grant from Baxter to pay for more research, to be conducted in university laboratories, but did not disclose the deal to the university. Instead, Baxter paid the money, $501,000, to MCL.

Verfaillie said Friday she performed the research in her university lab, but did not receive the money. Eventually, she contacted the dean, triggering an investigation.

A panel of three faculty members investigated and concluded that Furcht “committed a serious violation of the conflict of interest policy,” according to a Dec. 19, 2003, report.

Among other things, they found that Furcht “knew or should have known” that he was required to disclose the financial arrangement with Baxter, because he had “a significant financial interest” in MCL and the stem-cell technology.

“In fact, it appears Dr. Furcht stands to personally gain several million dollars from the pending sale of MCL,” the report said.

In November 2003, Furcht sold MCL for $9.5 million in stock, sharing 5 percent of the proceeds with the university.

The panel recommended that Furcht be disciplined and questioned whether he should retain his position as department chair. It also raised concerns that he may have misused his position “to personally benefit him and his commercial interests,” and recommended further investigation.

In her letter concluding the matter, Powell wrote: “Despite this, I value your managerial abilities as a department head and wish to retain you in this role.”

Wonder why Nemeroff and the rest of them keep at it? Minnesota helps you understand. University medical schools apparently like professors who lie and steal.

I see a great future for Bernard Madoff.

******************************

Update: Already this morning the people of Minnesota perceive the brilliance of Dean Powell’s reasoning. From a comment on the article:

[W]ho better to fix the system than someone who has had experience with its flaws?

UD proposes we call this the Hannibal Lecter Executive Strategy. Not only was Lecter, as an object of FBI interest, experienced in the Bureau’s flaws. As someone who killed and ate people, Lecter had an insider’s understanding of other people who kill and eat people.

********************

Well, but there’s already some controversy emerging. In fact, reader comments seem to be about six to one against the Lecter Strategy, with one reader going so far as to call the University of Minnesota “the world’s most inept institution.”

He’s wrong, though. That’s Yeshiva.