The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has confirmed that the FBI is investigating possible fraudulent employee credit card activity at Georgia Tech Research Institute.
An internal audit, completed in September and recently obtained by the AJC, found that two GTRI employees appeared to have circumvented purchase card policies, and a third employee approved the questionable card statements.
The audit outlined a number of possibly bogus invoices and procurement card payments made to questionable companies with ties to James Fraley, a senior research technologist, and Alan Golivesky, an assistant director of financial operations. The suspicious — and in some cases unaccounted for — purchases totaled about $1.5 million, according to the audit.
An owner of one of the companies mentioned in the report — Kurt Wiesmayer, owner of Wiesmann Tool, Inc. in Alpharetta — confirmed that he is set to meet with the FBI on Tuesday about the report.
Fraley and Golivesky have resigned from the university, a school spokesman said. The third employee, Stephen Blalock, a principal research engineer who reviewed the card statements, is on administrative leave.
The audit questioned the legitimacy of Wiesmayer’s company, noting that GTRI appeared to be the company’s only customer and was incorporated just one month before its first invoice to the institute. Wiesmayer said his company is legitimate.
GTRI is a non-profit research institute that receives a large portion of its research grant funds from federal agencies, including the Department of Defense. GTRI conducts more than $200 million in government and industry-funded research each year.
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