Felner and Schroeder Indicted for Mail Fraud

In a 1 pm press conference U.S. Attorney Dave Huber lowered the boom on Former U of L Education Dean Robert Felner and Thomas Schroeder.

This from C-J:

...Felner has been indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining nearly $2.3 million in grant money from University of Louisville and University of Rhode Island.

A federal grand jury in Louisville charged Felner, 58, with 10 counts of mail fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and income-tax evasion.

The 45-page indictment says that Felner and Thomas Schroeder, 58, of Illinois, took $1.7 million from the Rhode Island school and about $576,000 from U of L, and attempted to embezzle another $240,000 from U of L.

Felner, who resigned from U of L earlier this year, also allegedly failed to report $1.6 million in income from 2002 to 2007 and allegedly owes $500,000 in federal taxes, U.S. Attorney Dave Huber said in a news release.

Page One Kentucky attended the press conference and posted notes, including...

• Felner squandered millions upon millions of dollars and opened several bank accounts to handle the money.
• Felner's bank accounts and other assets were seized. U of L lost some money. U Rhode Island funds were lost.
• Felner's scam included contracting for work, and retaining funds to which he was not entitled. That income was not reported on his taxes.
• Huber believes they can show the extent of the fraud and the participants.
• He doesn’t see anything else coming at this point but refused to say that nothing else would come down the pike. (Jake says we're not done yet.)
• Arrest warrants are out.

This from the Providence Journal:

The indictment follows a five-month federal investigation by the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Service for alleged misappropriation of federal grants while Felner was dean at the University of Louisville's College of Education and Human Development, the job he took after he left URI in June 2003.

Federal agents visited URI several times, looking into his involvement in a research center he established on the Kingston campus in the late 1990s, the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy...

...Last month, URI officials said they were inspecting the finances of a research center founded by Felner on the Kingston campus: The National Center on Public
Education and Social Policy, which Felner established at URI in the late 1990s.

According to a summary of the indictment against Felner, he and Schroeder are
accused of embezzling $1.7 million from NCPE.

NCPE was a self-funded entity that generated income by surveying and assessing high schools, grade schools, and middle schools, the summary said. NCPE generally charged each school about $4,500. Its largest contract was with the Rhode Island Department of Education.

The two are also accused of diverting payments from clients in other states to private bank accounts.

Schroeder is executive director at the Rock Island County Council on Addiction and president of the Riverdale Community Unit School District No. 100 Board of Education.

Press conference video from C-J:

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