An internal audit has uncovered suspected fraudulent financial activities involving Georgia Tech Research Institute employees.
The audit, completed in September, found procurement card purchases that appeared to be split between two employees — James Fraley and Alan Golivesky — to circumvent the university’s purchasing policies. A third employee, Stephen Blalock, approved the card statements, the audit said. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained a copy of the audit from Georgia Tech Friday.
The report detailed discrepancies in charges and allegedly fake invoices, in addition to payments to questionable companies with ties to Fraley and Golivesky. The suspect transactions were made using the employees’ government-issued credit cards, known as “P-cards.” The suspected fraudulent transactions totaled about $1.5 million.
Attempts to contact Fraley, Golivesky and Blalock were unsuccessful. School officials, meanwhile, were tight-lipped about the report.
“While it is not appropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation, Georgia Tech has policies and training requirements in place for (P-card) usage,” a school spokesman said in an emailed statement to the AJC.
The state attorney general has been notified about the alleged malfeasance, a school spokesman said Friday.
Fraley, a senior research technologist, and Golivesky, assistant director of financial operations, have resigned from the university, the spokesman said. Blalock, a principal research engineer, is on administrative leave.
Auditors reviewed P-card transactions for Fraley and Golivesky from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2013, along with their university email accounts.
The transactions during this period involved mainly three companies, including one which was incorporated just a month before receiving invoices from the research institution. In one instance, an item charged for a classified project was sent to the address of a high school friend of Fraley’s who is a convicted felon jailed for methamphetamine production, the audit said.
This is the second notable instance of alleged P-card fraud at Georgia Tech. Six years ago, two employees were charged with misusing P-cards to purchase almost $500,000 in personal items, including jewelry, computers and Auburn University football tickets.
The latest audit was delivered to the research institute’s director Oct. 4.
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