Pay attention because this one’s a little confusing.
From the Associated Press:
A former University at Buffalo addictions researcher hired professional actors to testify on his behalf during an investigation into whether he fabricated data in federally funded studies, state prosecutors said Tuesday.
[Okay, so we start with two levels of fabrication: Fabrication of research, and fabrication of testimony.]
William Fals-Stewart paid three actors to speak by phone during a university misconduct hearing in 2007 – and then sued the state for $4 million when their false testimony helped exonerate him, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office said.
[Right. So the actors did a good job and convinced the university he was innocent of the charges. He then turned around and sued New York state for four million dollars. That was dumb. He should have taken his exoneration and run. But to the two layers of fabrication we must add greed.]
The office charged Fals-Stewart with grand larceny, perjury, identity theft, offering a false instrument and falsifying business records.
[Again, there’s a lesson here. STOP WITH THE HIRED ACTORS. DON’T GO FOR THE MONEY.]
… Fals-Stewart, 48, appeared in Buffalo City Court on Tuesday, where bail was set at $2,500.
[Pretty damn paltry bail for such a bad boy.]
His attorney did not immediately return a call for comment… [Who’s his attorney? Richard Gere?]
… The actors, using scripts written by Fals-Stewart, testified as three people who had worked on his projects at the university’s Research Institute on Addictions or who had access to records, prosecutors said in court documents.
… Fals-Stewart, claiming the allegations had tarnished his reputation, then demanded $4 million from the state to settle a federal lawsuit, Cuomo’s office said.
The attorney general’s office uncovered the fraud when, as the state’s lawyer, it was called on to defend the university and the state against the court action, Cuomo’s office said…
February 18th, 2010 at 7:50PM
Difficillimum est saturam non scribere.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:25PM
When I was doing my grad work in English at Buffalo, the up-and-coming Earthquake Research Center was caught plagiarizing parts of their main grant application. I suggested to the English Department that we establish a Plagiarism Research Center: nothing too fancy, just a simple how-to approach so our clients wouldn’t get busted so easily. Sadly, no one listened, and now they’re paying the price!
February 25th, 2010 at 5:53PM
Jim: LOL.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:44PM
“A week after he was charged in an elaborate scheme to defraud state taxpayers, a former University at Buffalo researcher was found dead Tuesday afternoon in his Eden home…”
http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/02/24/967562/former-ub-researcher-accused-of.html